November 02, 1989 - The Reds, Golds and Browns of AutumnBIG The Suffolk Times • November 2, 1989
The Reds., Golds and Browns of Autumn
By Paul Stoutenbur -0
Can you ever remember a fall when
our weather was so perfect and for so
long a time? It's days like this when we
eat our lunch outdoors under a canopy
of yellow and brown leaves. We here on
the East End miss the brilliant colors of
the Catskills and Adirondacks and, of
course, the most famous of all, the New
England states. Yet there are some spots
that rival any for color. The wet places
where the swamp maples grow do pretty
well to give the viewer a splash of reds
and oranges and, of course, if the condi-
Focus on
Nature
tions are just right, our oaks sometimes
put on a special show of their own
Thanksgiving color. Nothing flashy,
but more in their maroon mood of fall.
Today as we ate there wasn't a breath
of air to be had. As a matter of fact, my
windmill has hardly had enough energy
put up against its sweeping tail to turn
it into the wind, let alone turn its mas-
sive blades. Sunlight filtered through
the changing colors of fall and the only
motion the eye could catch was an occa-
sional leaf pirouetting in its own ballet
to the ground.
For weeks the trees' inner processes
have been changing. Slowly a corky
layer has been building up between the
main part of the branch and the connect-
ing stem parts of the leaf. In doing so it
has cut off all the supply routes going
and coming with nutrients and water to
the leaf. The tree is preparing itself for
winter.
Many Trees, Many Colors
With the manufacturing plant of
chlorophyll (the green material in the
leaf) gone, or cut off, we see the other,
less dominant, colors showing up: the
yellows of the birch, the maple, the
cherry, the sassafras, the hickory; the
oranges of the sugar maple so
brilliantly shown in the trees upstate;
r-11ULU uy raw.,v..,o.,..y..
VIRGINIA CREEPER —This climbing plant grows just about anywhere
here on the East End. During the fall colors, look for this splash of red in
the woods, along the back fence or out on the sunny beach.
the reds of the swamp or red maple and
the staghorn sumac and, of course, don't
forget the reds of poison ivy and Vir-
ginia creeper. Browns are typical of our
Long Island oaks. As the season pro-
gresses, the leaves ripen, so to speak,
and now await the slightest breeze to
send a shower of them to earth.
The occasional leaf I saw falling
down when we ate did so because of its
own weight burdening it down just
enough to make it fall. Another factor
in defoliation of fall leaves is rain. Here
again the added weight of water on the
leaves brings a torrent of them down.
Put wind and rain together and our
woods become stripped and take on the
look of a winter wood overnight.
I guess it's because there is just this
occasional leaf dropping that I've con-
vinced myself not to start raking just
yet. No use in having to do it all over
again, for sooner or later the leaves will
all come tumbling down and then real
leaf- raking can begin.
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Remember when you were a kid and
there were great piles of leaves your par-
ents had raked and how much fun it was
to run and jump into them? And, of
course, we boys always had to throw
armfuls of the rich brown leaves at our
sisters — how they screamed and
hollered and how we loved it!
Do you know there is already a gener-
ation of young adults who don't know
how we used to get rid of leaves years
ago. We'd burn them, but then the
Clean Air Act came along and put a
stop to that. I can still remember the
wonderful smell of burning leaves. It
would be in the air throughout the fall,
for someone was always burning. It was
a time our local volunteer firemen didn't
look forward to, for many an innocent
leaf- burning operation got out of
control and in no time the fire
department was called in to put out the
woods burning next door.
It's a shame most people don't utilize
the leaves to better advantage. Luckily a
lot of the leaves that are taken to many
of our landfills are being set aside, com-
posted and used for mulch. In the
natural world this is exactly how the
system works. The leaves which are
rich in plant food drop and act as a
blanket over the roots of the tree during
the winter. Rains and snow soften them
so that decay can start, and soon the
leaves become a mulch which acts as a
natural fertilizer and soil builder. The
system has been working since the
beginning of time and is the reason life
can exist on our planet today.
Needles Are Leaves, Too
Most don't think about our
evergreens having leaves but, of course,
they do. Their leaves are needles. These
needles don't as a rule drop each year,
but rather stay on the tree for from three
to five years. To the sharp eye one can
see the difference in the color of
evergreens. between winter and summer.
The look of an evergreen in the summer
is lush and rich green, but during the
winter it becomes dull and loses its
luster. This is because the green
(chlorophyll) withdraws from the
surface of the leaf along with the water
content so that the tree can withstand
the alternate freezing and thawing that
goes on during those cold winter
months.
When spring comes, if the leaves are
young enough, they start up their
manufacturing plant to produce the
starch and nutrients that the plant needs
to grow. If the leaves (needles) are too
old they'll die and fall off and will be
replaced by younger ones as the tree
grows on the outside, just as the leaves
are replaced in our broadleaf trees.
The fall has been good to us, what
with the warm weather and rich Long
Island color. It did, however, almost
overdo itself when it came to rain. But
that's not too bad, for the trees need
rain, particularly in the fall when water
is important for their winter survival.
This has been an exceptional fall. Let's
hope our winter will be just as good.
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