Very soon all the trees will be bare in my neighborhood.  This is already the case north of Pittsburgh.

A week ago I visited the Clarion River in Jefferson County where I noticed that even the oaks were bare.  At the Allegheny Front last Sunday the leaves on the mountain had fallen but in the valley the oaks were russet, the tulip trees golden.  In the valley the leaves were putting on a final show.  By now it’s probably over.

However, the show isn’t over yet if you have non-native trees in your area.  Trees from northern locations are out of sync with our photo period so most of them still have leaves, some are green.

Our native maples lost their leaves two weeks ago.  The maples you see now with yellow and green leaves are Norway maples which respond to the amount of light they receive in Norway in October – about 10 hours per day.  Pittsburgh’s days aren’t that short until early November so these foreign maples are delayed.  They’re on Norway time.

Eventually even the non-natives will catch up.  How will I know when all the leaves are gone?  When I don’t have to rake anymore.

(photo by Marcy Cunkelman)