Fall colors are in full swing here. Yesterday was a sunny day so it was an opportunity to take a photo since the colors do look nicer with the sun shining. While it was overcast and rainy, everything just looked a dull orange. I have often admired this maple tree. It is not mine; I wish it was. A friend in England told me that the maples there do not get this brilliant red so I am posting this photo for her so that she might enjoy the redness of the fall maple, too.




I was fortunate that, when the town planted the boulevard trees, I was not given a Norway Maple to look after. It would have annoyed me to no end. They are an invasive species of tree that is pushing out the natives. Along the side of my property was planted some Green Ash trees of a cultivar called "Autumn Purple". This one is a fine specimen.



Autumn Purple, indeed. As far as I can tell, the Autumn Purple is a cultivar from Fraxinus Pennsylvanica the same as our Father's Day tree which looks like this right now.


When it does finally change colors, it will be yellow. Audubon says there is a northern variant of this species called a Red Ash, covered with hairs on the underside of its leaves. Well, if this is where the purple color comes from and they are this different, should they not be a separate species? I do not make the rules; I just call it like I see it.