Author: Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.

Aster Seedheads

Asters are dainty flowers that resemble daisies. Flowers that are just the right size for a dollhouse. They generally bloom in late summer into autumn.

I love the ones that are lavender, blooming as the trees are beginning to change color. Blooming all along the dirt road coming up my mountain. There’s also one that has a deeper purple color with petals that are just a bit longer than I usually see. Late Purple Aster (Symphyotrichum patens). These are a bit more difficult to find but worth the search.

But I’m telling you all this to tell you about the seeds. After the diminutive bloom comes the seed. Changing from Daisy-like to Dandelion-like.

Every little seed has an attachment much like a single barb of a bird’s feather. Nearly weightless and ready to take flight with the slightest breeze. Makes me think of that Dandelion’s Wishing Flower. Blow on it and make a wish.

Blueberry Bushes in Autumn

Some Blueberry Bushes celebrate autumn in an amazing way. The area around my cabin is a perfect illustration of this. Some of my bushes are really kicking up their heals with joy. I can’t tell you which species or cultivars these bushes are. I’ve got between 10 and 15 bushes, most of which were put in nearly 30 years ago. Back in the days when I had no idea I should be keeping track of what I was putting in. I only know they produce wonderful blueberries. So it’s a big mystery. But take a look at that photo above. Almost half the bushes I’ve got are that color. Screaming red. Blueberry Bushes send out rewards every season of the year. Spring with their blossoms. Summer with their fruit. Autumn with their color. And in winter the rewards are the red stems which are glorious with snow sparkling on them.

Autumn Color Change

During the summer months the trees around us are covered with green leaves. The green color in those leaves is thanks to a green pigment, chlorophyll, that the leaves use to capture the sun’s energy. That energy is used to change water and carbon dioxide into glucose and oxygen, in a process called photosynthesis. Glucose is used by plants for energy and to create other materials such as cellulose, and starch. But how do we end up with the warm colors of autumn? The reds, yellows and oranges?

Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia)

The principal pigments that produce color within a leaf are: chlorophyll (green); xanthophylls (yellow); carotenoids (orange); and anthocyanins (reds and purples).

During the summer there is an abundance of chlorophyll as the leaves work to provide energy for the tree, this gives the leaves their green color. As summer winds down trees will pick up signals that the seasons are changing. Those signals? Days that are becoming shorter and cooling temperatures. In response photosynthesis slows and the amount of chlorophyll drops drastically, leaving the other pigments within the leaf more plentiful, changing the colors. Yellows, oranges, reds and sometimes even purples. And we have AUTUMN.

Frost

It was the coldest morning so far this autumn. At 32° not extremely cold but cold enough to please this lover of winter. Driving down the mountain on my way to yoga the changing leaves delighted me with their warm colors. Water running through the gravel and dirt of the road hadn’t gotten an opportunity to freeze. It will be ice one of these mornings soon. As I got to the lower elevations, into the pools of colder air I was a greeted by a delightful expanse of scintillating frost covering everything. Even house’s roofs were covered with it giving the impression that snow had fallen. At the yoga studio I was able to take closeup pictures of what seemed to be a dusting of sparkling sugar. So nice to have the class get me up and out to see such things.

Red Maples

Red Maple (Acer rubrum). Up here in the mountains I’m seeing the peak of autumnal color. If you haven’t noticed, come on up. It’s ubiquitous.

Even down below, in the lowlands, the colors are changing to knockout warmth and brilliance.

Come, take a deep breath, slow down, let go of all that is making you blindly rush around. Autumn is out there waiting for you to notice. It won’t be here long. Take it all in before it’s GONE.

One contributor to the grand rollout of color is the Red Maple. It’s a tree that is native to eastern and central North America, from Quebec to Minnesota south to Florida and east Texas, and is one of the most extensively distributed trees in eastern North America.

It’s a tree that generally grows to 40 – 70 feet and on occasion even to 120 feet tall. Red Maples can be as much as 4 feet in diameter. The bark is a distinctive smooth silvery gray which becomes furrowed as the tree ages.

It’s not particular about its growing conditions growing equally well in swampy areas or in dry areas with poor soil.

Most often its fall coloring is red, or yellow with hints of red. There are wonderful autumn colors out there. Take NOTE!

Turkey Tail Mushroom

Turkey Tail Mushroom (Trametes versicolor). A mushroom that’s commonly found throughout North America, also in Asia and Europe. It lives on standing dead trees, fallen trees or their stumps. And sometimes they’re found on wounds of living trees as well.

Turkey Tail Mushroom is saprophytic, which means that it creates enzymes which break down the cell walls of dead wood, supplying nourishment for the mushroom. As this process goes on, the mushrooms are helping clear the forest for new growth.

In turn the Turkey Tail Mushroom is eaten by caterpillars of the Fungus Moth (Nemaxera betulinella), maggots of the Platypezid Fly (Polyporivora picta), and the Fungus Gnat (Mycetophila luctuosa).

But to me, one who roams the woods, in these mushrooms Mother Nature has created something to delight the eye.

Jack-O-Lantern Mushroom Revisited

**Jack-O-Lantern Mushroom (Omphalotus illudens)**

Today is Halloween. Time for Trick or Treat. But don’t get tricked into thinking that this mushroom is a treat. Visually, *DEFINITELY*. But not a treat to eat.

Eat the Jack-O-Lantern Mushrooms and you will get treated to headache, stomach cramps, vomiting, and or diarrhrea. Sounds to me like a wicked trick.

Jack-O-Lantern Mushrooms are said by many many sources to have gills that glow in the dark. I have serious doubts about this, after many unsuccessful attempts to see this phenomenon myself. Don’t depend on this to determine what mushroom you have discovered. You’ll be asking for trouble.

This beautiful mushroom is found east of the Rocky Mountains. They’re very common here in the mountains around my cabin. And it’s often found in urban areas too.

They’ll sprout up in large clumps from dead trees, stumps, and buried roots of hardwoods, particularly oaks, in the autumn. The time of year, and the color of the mushrooms, has paved the way for it’s common name.

Have a safe Halloween, and remember don’t eat mushrooms that you’re not totally SURE about.

A Drop of Rain

A glimpse of the whole world in a drop of rain.

Rain on the needles of Virginia Pine (Pinus virginiana). Three days of rain. One would think I’d be ready for it to stop. For the sun to come out and wipe the moisture away with a gentle brush. No I won’t wish the rain and gray skies away. Those gray skies create magic if you’ll just think about it. There are wondrous autumnal colors now. The magic of the gray skies are the strength of those colors. The darker the sky, the richer the colors, until they vanish into the darkness. Gray skies and rain are beautiful in my fall world.

More Hickory

Continuing on a thread that I started yesterday. These nuts are Bitternut Hickory. All Hickory nuts are edible but with this one, as the name implies, is one that you might want to skip. There are much better nuts in the woods.

Some moths have the Hickory tree as their host plant. One that is often seen in the fall is the Hickory Tussock Moth Caterpillar. Those long hairs are used as protection against predators and may irritate the skin of sensitive individuals. Use caution.

Another moth caterpillar that uses the Hickory tree as their host plant is an incredibly large one, the Hickory Horned Devil. Growing to 5.5 inches to 6 inches in length, it’s the caterpillar of the Regal Moth. Despite its size and amazing look the caterpillar is totally harmless with no poisonous spines.

The Regal Moth, the adult of the Hickory Horned Devil is of course large as well and can fill the space of a hand, with a wingspan of 4 to 6 inches. There are also butterflies that use Hickory trees as their host plants including Hickory Hairstreak and Banded Hairstreak.

Right now as autumn blazes through those Hickories are waiting to be discovered. Get out and look for the amazing golden glow, and compound leaf. Could be a Hickory.

Hickory Trees

There are eighteen species of Hickory in the genus Carya (from Ancient Greek for “nut”). Those eighteen, in turn, are in the Walnut or Juglandaceae family. Twelve of these Hickory Trees are native to North America. Right now on my mountain they are literally shining bright. The photograph above has Red Maple leaves in the foreground and gleaming through from behind are Hickory leaves in their autumn splendor.

The leaves of Hickories are compound. They have leaflets growing opposite each other along the leaf’s central stem, or rachis, with a final leaflet at the end. All this comprises the whole leaf, an odd number of leaflets makes up one leaf, of all Hickory trees.

There are four species of Hickory native to Virginia. One of them, Shagbark Hickory, is quite common further up the mountain. It might be my favorite of the Hickories because its identity is so obvious. Easy is good.