North Eastern North America Foliage Colours

[Gene]

I was asked in another thread to post pictures of the fall foliage here in the northeast of North America so the UK and European modellers could have some prototypical info for modelling this area in autumn. I lived in the country in both the UK and Ireland for many years, during which time I noticed subtle and not-so subtle differences in the colour of the fall foliage there versus the northeastern part of North America.

 

Northern New York ,Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine as well as southern Quebec, Southern Ontario and New Brunswick encompass a huge area, larger than France, Switzerland and Germany combined and they all have a commonality of trees,shrubs,soil and climate that give them a very distinctive colour palette and look in the autumn. I hope these pics can be of assistance in your modelling.

Cheers

Gene

 

These were taken Oct. 1, 2013 in central Montreal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next ones were taken in the same area but in 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next ones were taken about 10 years ago about 50 miles south of Montreal just north of the Vermont border.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[trisonic]

Thanks, Gene. I'll be adding some myself later. I think you're a bit ahead of us in NJ - The Dogwoods are in full crimson, the Maples are just showing colour at the top so they run the full spectrum of green to red. If I have time I'll run a week by week series through the season.

 

It's going to be 29C/84f here today!

 

Best, Pete.

[Gene]

Hi Pete....yup,was speaking to my girlfriend in Yardley yesterday....she was saying that the trees in her area were just starting to turn and that it was supposed to get pretty steamy there. We have been having 70 degrees during the day and cool in the evening.....I think,due to these warm temps the colours up here will be subdued this year compared to last year.

[trisonic]

Would have started earlier but was a little Moby this week....

 

In this post all photos were taken in my backyard during the last week of September 2013. Unlike Gene I'll be posting a new post every week with a week's progression.....

 

 

Dogwood tree. Always the first to turn around here in NJ.

 

 

Dogwood leaf detail.

 

 

Some kind of Fir. No idea which - it isn't important for our uses. This is tall,  over 100feet tall. Notice how it loses it's lower branches- this is typical in a forest environment over here where they are fighting for top light.

 

 

Different Fir, slightly shorter - notice some kind of vine wrapped around it's trunk.

 

 

The big deciduous trees had not really started last week so I took photos of their trunks. This is a trash Maple i.e. not as pretty as a Red Maple.

*Note that no trunks are brown!*

 

 

Oak trunk, plenty tall! Note colours and texture..

 

 

This Oak tree is buried in the small wood on my land at the bottom of my yard - it may be a Pin Oak? The trunk is arrow straight and must be 120foot tall. You can understand how the Royal Navy treasured this resource in the 1700's!  If you look closely you'll see a vertical ridge running down the trunk on the left hand side - this was caused by a lightning strike! This tree has been struck twice and is still thriving.

That's not flash but a shaft of sunlight penetrating to the floor. This was taken in full sunlight so you can imagine how dark the real forests are in North America.

 

More next week when you'll see big changes.

 

I'm going to try and follow these trees for a complete year.... God willing.

 

Best, Pete.

[Colin]

Been touring round parts of Maine, NH, Vermont for last week; now in Williamstown, Massachusetts - on return to UK I should be able to make a contribution to this thread!

[trisonic]

The colours peak in a North to South "wave". A couple of hundred miles oor a few thousand feet in elevation makes all the difference.  On our local news at this time of year they produce a map showing pre-peak, peak and past peak colours.

 

Best, Pete.

[Suzie]

My overriding memory of the New England 2011 fall in the New York/Niagara/Boston triangle was the very regular mix of the tree types, there did not appear to be any monoculture of any particular deciduous tree type, and the vivid red colour was all due to acers (maples?), other trees were all what I would describe as 'normal' orange and yellow autumn colours, perhaps a bit more vivid than we get in the UK unless there is a very sharp cold snap which improves the colour here. It was all very pretty, as if by design, and apparently it was all planted after the whole region was cut down for building which I guess would explain the apparent uniformity. The pictures are nice, but there really is nothing quite like being there to see it for real to get an understanding of how the landscape works, and sitting in bank holiday traffic jams on the interstate I had plenty of time to study!

[Adrian Wintle]

 

You can get different colours from the same species of tree.

 

You can also get a significant range on the same tree (pardon the quality, it was a bit damp out):

 

 

 

Adrian

 

[trisonic]

This project for me is grinding to a halt! Gales blew all the turned leaves off the trees and similar bad weather is forecast through the weekend, d'oh.

 

Best, Pete.

[Colin]

I took these few on my recent travels, all were taken about a week ago in various New England locations. I do have a whole lot more!

[JWB]

Foliage doesn't turn color just in the northeast, although this is spectacular. Here are some cottonwoods in northern New Mexico last week:

[vcltel]

There are generally some spectacularly coloured leaves to be seen at the Westonbirt Arboretum in autumn. Whether they are an exact match for the US ones I don't know.  The cottonwoods in New Mexico are interesting to me as my main interest is in SP and ATSF,  have you any more pictures of the deciduous trees of the South West in their autumnal splendour please? 

[JWB]

The trees you see in the southwest depend heavily on elevation and latitude. In far northern New Mexico, the trees are defined as "Canadian" at the highest elevations, while at lower elevations and more southern latitudes, there aren't many trees at all. If you're modeling the Santa Fe/BNSF transcon, you don't find a whole lot of trees until you get to the Flagstaff, AZ area. The typical "tree" farther down is the juniper, which is more of a bush, and chaparral, which is a generic term for various kinds of sagebrush. Here are some cottonwoods at lower elevation surrounded by junipers and chaparral:

Here are some maples at the 5000 foot level in Southern California, which is higher than railroads run in the area. The scenery at the 4000 foot level in Cajon and Tehachapi is nothing like this:

The New Mexico photos I posted above are along the ex Santa Fe largely passenger route via Raton Pass, which is now unfortunately almost unused except for Amtrak 3 and 4. Exactly what trees you include on a southwestern layout will depend heavily on specific location!