Autumn colours

[paul m]

Goosey put up a very nice photo of a colourful beech tree

and here in England the trees seem to be more colourful than usual:


This is one of our local woods where the oaks still have leaves but of different colours - other trees are bare while the alders are still green and willows yellowing.

Walking along the River Wye towards Bakewell there are even more contrasts: murky brown sycamore yellowing larch, beech in a very intense reddish colour and, of course, some conifers still green or silvery:



Quite a spectacular autumn really ... although still not up to the technicolour woodlands that you get in North America at this time of year ....

[stirling]

Thanks for that Paul,very nice photos.

Best from mike.

[paul m]

No problem. I imagine that you artists might have a field day with autumn colours - if you're in the impressionist mode? It's only at this time of year that you get this enormous range of yellow-red tints - little green or blue but lots of subtle variations in the 'autumn' scale ....

Originally Posted by stirling

Thanks for that Paul,very nice photos.
Best from mike.

[goosey]

This oak looks as if it fell quite a while back. The broken trunk looks weathered and not at all fresh. It is still so alive! It's foliage is changing colours, mosses, lichens and fungi are growing on it as well as the leaves. It was seen 27 -10-2007. I think I will see if I can get back and see if the leaves have turned any more.
But can it be alive?

[paul m]

It's not unusual for fallen trees to regenerate - not a lot different from coppicing after all.

Yes, fallen giants are wonders ... apart from any regrowth they might make themselves, they support so many other organisms. Not just the ones you've mentioned but those living and growing within the fallen trunk.

It's only over the last few decades that fallen "over-mature" (as some people refer to them) trees have been left to rot down (or whatever) by woodland managers .... for many years, particularly in the middle of the last century, they were dragged off, sawn up and burned!

Doing that, of course, killed all the beetles and fungi living within the wood and removed the excellent habitat that you've captured.

Still, hopefully things are done better now although I note that some "sporting" woods are pretty low on deadwood ....

Originally Posted by goosey

This oak looks as if it fell quite a while back. The broken trunk looks weathered and not at all fresh. It is still so alive! It's foliage is changing colours, mosses, lichens and fungi are growing on it as well as the leaves. It was seen 27 -10-2007. I think I will see if I can get back and see if the leaves have turned any more.
But can it be alive?

[paul m]

I say this every year (probably) but I'm always intrigued by the different timing of colour change between tree species or even between individual trees.
In the city centre a group of maples (which presumably are more or less clones) showing very wide range of colours this year - some still green, some yellowing, some turning red and other a mixture of all!


Up here the oaks are all turning but in the English Midlands last week they were all still green:

[paul m]

We haven't seen these sort of colours though - obviosuly milder over in Lancashire.