Color It Fall

At last, it's looking seasonal in St. Louis. The late freeze at Easter caused most trees to have to leaf out a second time, delaying our spring greening by anywhere from 2-4 weeks. So fall color has been delayed about that long as well.

We are enjoying the ruddy leaves on our little (well, it's now about 9-10 feet tall) ash tree that we planted on the city parking easement 4 autumns ago. This tree must not know it's supposed to have clear yellow leaves in fall. Or maybe it's not a white ash at all, but another mystery species.

Family and friends who live elsewhere or who have moved away have been asking about The Maple. Here it is, as of this afternoon. Not as fiery as some years, but a landmark nonetheless. We are trying to keep the ground beneath all of our trees watered enough so that they will go into the winter with sufficient moisture to survive the cold. Not to mention the survival of the grass that grows beneath them!

Even our oak in front of the house has developed a deep red, appropriate for its red oak family status. I have seen various references to the transpiration rate of oak trees. One Internet source says that a mature oak tree can draw up to 50 or more gallons of water per day. Trees take up water through their root system. Some of the water evaporates from the leaves in a process called transpiration. A large oak tree such as ours can transpire 40,000 gallons per year. Acorn production was supposed to be lighter this year. After all, that Easter weekend freeze eliminated all of the blossoms and the clouds of yellow pollen that drift over the drive, walks and porch every spring. So we were as surprised as anyone (except maybe the squirrels) when acorns began falling all over the yard in September. That same Internet source said that oaks can take 20 to 50 years before they begin to produce acorns, and that in their prime, 70-80 years old, they may have thousands of acorns each year. Ours must be in its prime! It may not be a bumper crop, but it's a sufficient one, I think, to keep our furry-tailed friends from too much mischief with the bird feeders this coming winter. The continuing mystery is the immaculate conception of this crop, since as far as we could tell the flowers all died in the freeze and the tree didn't bloom a second time. Hmmmm.