Maple
Acer sp. · Trees - Deciduous
Maple canopy against the sky
Prospect Park, 13 October 2024
Looking straight up through the crown, where the turn shows as patches rather than the gradient it reads as from a distance - red and orange breaking out in clusters across a canopy still mostly green. The order is not random. A maple sheds its outermost leaves first, the ones that have had the most sun and the most cold, and the shaded inner leaves hold on longest, so the tree turns from the outside in.
Maple turning, one branch at a time
Prospect Park, 13 October 2024
Colour change starts at the tips and the outer canopy, where the leaves catch the most sun and cold both, which is why a maple in October so often shows every stage from full green to full orange on the one tree at once.
A single branch can go early on its own if it has been damaged or shaded, which is what this one seems to have done. The rest of the tree will follow within the fortnight.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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