The foliage is now reaching peak color in the Cheat River Canyon.
Field notes:
1. Yellow is the predominant color in many sections of the canyon, especially where American beech, tulip poplar, sugar maple, witch hazel, and yellow and black birch are the dominant species. Sugar maple has a highly variable leaf color in the canyon, ranging from vibrant yellow to brilliant orange. In the rockier sections of the canyon, where it occurs with beech and birch, it seems to dress like its neighbors.
2. The oaks were just starting to go on Sunday, and will add some additional color this upcoming weekend - when everything should be at peak. Over the past decade or so, peak color in the local NC WV area has moved steadily from mid to late October to early November. Good article here on how climate change is dulling and delaying peak in some areas of the country. Higher elevations of the Alleghenies seem to be more resilient and have continued to change over in early October.
3. Mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium) is now firmly at the top of my list of favorite native shrubs. Everything about this plant fills me with joy, from its graceful, maple-like foliage to its somewhat balletic, clumping habit. In the spring, it produces the most enchanting bouquet of delicate white flowers with pink highlights. The flowers give way in the fall to iridescent blue-black berries, which contrast beautifully with the pastel-like red of its foliage. Fortunately for me, mapleleaf viburnum loves this canyon and is common throughout.
4. Eastern teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens), also sometimes called American wintergreen (not to be confused with striped wintergreen), carpets the acidic forest floor of the drier, oak-hickory woods in the canyon and adds a nice pop of green color (freckled with bright red berries) to the fallen leaves. The same is true of the various species of clubmosses that seem delighted to grow in the canyon, including fan clubmoss (Lycopodium digitatum), the most common variety.
5. Gray, drizzly overcast has been the rule for the past two weeks in NC WV. Normally, I would not be overly happy about that. But for some reason in the fall, it fits the mood and can actually bring out the leaf color even more. So I’m not going to bitch and instead be contented with what I have to work with. :-)
