Walking in the Park this morning it struck me how many trees are dropping their leaves. In places, the ground is covered. We have a lot of Whitebeams in the park, and in the Spring they were a magnificent sight, covered in blossom, as I have never seen before. Now they are dripping with orange berries, and from afar, they merge like an orange haze.
But their leaves are dropping. Not turniong colour, just shrivelling up and dropping.
The same is true of the sycamores, and the birches. And the Horse Chestnuts look in a very bad way. They have turned a glorious orange, but in patches. Parts of the tree are still greenish. I have never seen anything like it before. I do hope it is not the blight which is affecting Horse Chestnuts in England, as if it is, the Council will have them down - for Health and Safety reasons, of course!
Many of the trees are still sturdily green, like the Oaks, but they always turn colour later. It seems to be the smaller trees, and the ornamental trees that are suffering.
I do wonder what our odd seasons have done to them to make them react in this way. Have we any people here with Arboricultural knowledge, who can let me know?
7 comments:
Hi Gilly, thanks for stopping by my place the other day. Like us, stress does a number on the trees. It's been a hot and fairly dry summer around here, so the trees are shutting down and leaves are dropping more quickly. Trees like birch and sycamore drop early anyway. Our maples need time to turn that fiery red, and the leaves may just darken and fall off if the tree shuts down early to conserve water. Let's hope that's all it is, because with a good rain they'll come back strong in the spring.
I do hope that the trees are not being affected by some sort of blight or pest. Your pictures are lovely and the reflection in the top picture is wonderful.
I noticed this about the trees too - I put it down to the weather, but would be interested to know the real reason. xx
Whatever the cause, the trees pictured look beautiful, Gilly. Leaves get blasted from the trees by October gales in this part of the world! x
yes, it's suddenly become leave-kicking weather round here too
dog walking takes forever as the smells are caught in all those crunchy leaves
Gilly,
Usually extended dry periods do this. But I don't remember your saying it's been very dry in your area. Lower night time temperatures usually spark the first turning.
I shudder to think what we've done to our planet, and hope we haven't gone past the point of no return. As long as we have gorgeous vistas like these, I'd like to believe we're OK.
I need to learn from you, as you capture landscapes with such grace. These are beautiful!
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