As daytime temperatures begin to cool and open windows at night let in refreshing breezes, you may need a light blanket on the bed. Day lengths are getting shorter as the planet travels around the sun at 67,000 miles per hour toward the winter solstice.
Trees begin preparing for winter by transferring chlorophyll from leaves into stems, showing us other colors present in the leaves. We enjoy this time of year with comfortable temperatures and the colorful change of seasons.
Young white oak and greybeard trees provide fall color and wildlife value in a Betton Hills front yard. Photo by Vanessa Crisler.
Compared to New England, North Florida fall color is more variable from year to year, but we do have several trees with dependable fall color. The trees mentioned here are all American natives which, in addition to great fall color, have value to wildlife throughout the year. Take oaks as an example. White oak and swamp chestnut oak leaves typically turn a pleasant shade of red. In spring and summer, caterpillars dine on their new succulent leaves. In the United States, ninety species of oaks are food for 534 species of caterpillars! Most of these caterpillars become high quality protein for baby birds and their parents. In autumn, acorns are food for insects, birds, and mammals.
During winter, we think of deciduous oaks or trees in general as devoid of insect life. However, many species of moths, particularly inchworms, overwinter as caterpillars camouflaged as twigs or hiding in bark crevices. They do absolutely nothing from November through February. Birds such as the ruby-crowned kinglet, golden-crowned kinglet, and blue-gray gnatcatcher survive the winter on these and other insects. Chickadees, which visit feeders all year, must have fifty percent of their winter diet as insects. Most species of native insects can only digest the leaves of native plants; let us look at native trees for our area that have dependable fall color.
Pignut and mockernut hickory, commonly seen growing along our canopy roads, are a beautiful yellow gold in fall. The dangerous looking, though harmless, hickory horned devil caterpillar eats hickory leaves and transforms into a stately regal moth.
Sweetgum, sometimes shunned because of its seed pods, is one of the best. Autumn leaves may be dark purple, red, or yellow. Luna moth caterpillars eat the leaves and American goldfinch and Carolina chickadees relish the seeds plucked from the prickly balls.
Red maple is like sweetgum in having a range of color – purple, red, orange, or yellow. The Florida sugar maple is always a fiery orange, while chalk maple is reliably yellow each year. A friend described a row of chalk maples in his yard as a line of candles glowing in autumn.
Bald cypress, a deciduous conifer, turns a wonderful rusty cinnamon color along our rivers or in your yard. Sassafras is usually red or yellow. It is also a larval food plant for the spicebush swallowtail. Black cherry, sporting red or orange leaves, is host to the caterpillars of cecropia moth, tiger swallowtail, and red-spotted purple, among others.
Two smaller trees with color are the blue beech and greybeard. Blue beech should be planted under taller trees and turns yellow gold. Plant greybeard, always a bright yellow in fall, in sun to light shade.
American beech leaves
American beech is unique in that it has stunning yellow-orange leaves in autumn, but the leaves do not fall off for winter. The leaves either turn dark rusty-brown or beige and stay on the tree until springtime. Young American beech trees are amazing standing in a deciduous forest in winter. They will be just as striking in your yard. It is long lived, growing to one hundred feet.
Keep a natural layer of leaves under the dripline of you trees. Do not rake up and dispose of fallen leaves. Caterpillars high in the canopy, when ready to change into a moth or butterfly, usually fall to the ground, hiding among leaves or in the top inches of soil where they pupate. Lawn grass under a tree canopy usually spells death for these creatures. Do not rake excessively deep layers of leaves or pine straw onto the root system of your trees. Interestingly, some caterpillars of butterflies and moths eat only the dead fallen leaves on the ground.
November through February is the best time to plant trees in our area, with December being ideal. Planting in December lets the roots get a head start growing before the next summer’s heat arrives. Plant at the correct depth with the root flare at the soil surface. Untangle, straighten out, or cut off any circling roots if the tree is pot-bound.
The absolute best way to plant a tree is to plant a seed or buy a small bare root seedling. This will allow the tree to develop a properly shaped root system as compared to a large pot grown plant, though young trees in three-gallon pots are usually fine too. Always check the roots. A healthy root system will support your tree in hurricanes and circling roots will not kill it 10 years into its life. Plant a beautiful, shade-giving, wildlife providing tree this winter!