After my recent comments about the oaks with green leaves even at the end of autumn, I thought a brief note would be helpful now that the winter solstice has passed.
I had mentioned phenology, basically the study of nature’s calendar and the timing of seasonal changes. I said that it was December and most oaks still had their leaves – and the leaves were mostly green. But in the last couple of weeks, that changed. We had a flash of autumn color and then, on my walk on December 22, any remaining leaves on the oaks were brown.
I went for a late walk from about 4 to 4:50pm. The trail up the hillside took me through a slow, steady rain of leaves drifting to the ground. Now there is a growing carpet of oak leaves, and the woodland is opening up, with tree trunks like short columns holding up the sky.
It’s not that most leaves have fallen yet, but they are brown and crisp. I’m sure that carpet will deepen, giving the woods that softness that absorbs some noise and creates a sense of quiet to go with that warm light from the sun’s low path across the sky. Who knows how many more leaves will add to that carpet, but some leaves will remain on the trees in something called “marcescence.”
There was one little blackjack oak sprout whose leaves were pretty magnificent, but the rest of the trees were done.
It was 74 degrees in the area at 4:30pm, so it didn’t feel like the first day of winter. Honeybees were arriving at the bee tree, though I’m not sure what they could have been foraging except water. A few Comanche harvester ants were active as well. At the bluff, more brown leaves; the only patch of color was the farkleberry bush (also known as huckleberry, a relative of blueberries).
So it’s a new entry into the phenology calendar, probably nothing that unusual, just the trees holding on until the last minute and then a quick change. It was certainly a nice walk through this familiar place that never becomes so predictable that one loses interest. Down toward the big pond there was a little ragged red sumac. Many of the leaves had blown off or dropped, but the remainder were bright red.