Sourwood can open the season in the first week of September. Its deeply furrowed alligator bark and crooked trunk are easy to recognize once you know them. Red maple can turn in the same week for the opposite reason; its winged seeds leave on the wind without needing to attract anything. By mid-September, Virginia creeper can run scarlet up a trunk that has not changed at all. A few days later comes sumac . According to the Finger Lakes Land Trust, its fruit has so little flesh and fat that it resists spoilage, leaving clusters upright on bare stems through winter when little else remains.
Chlorophyll gives a working leaf its green. As fall sets in, chlorophyll breaks down and is no longer replaced. The yellows and oranges that emerge were already there, pigments that had been masked by the green. Red is different. In many trees, the anthocyanins responsible for red fall color are made in the leaf during autumn. On the Plateau, the answer to “when the leaves change” can be as varied as the reason to turn. THE LEAF COLOR GUIDE:
SOURWOOD FLAGGING Oxydendrum arboreum Crimson to scarlet
VIRGINIA CREEPER FLAGGING Parthenocissus quinquefolia Deep crimson
RED MAPLE MOST WIDESPREAD Acer rubrum Scarlet
SUMAC ROAD SHOULDERS Rhus spp. Scarlet-orange
PEAK ON TH
SOURWOOD RED MAPLE
VIRGINIA CREEPER SUMAC
YELLOW BIRCH
AMERICAN CHESTNUT SASSAFRAS
SEP 1
SEP 15
OCT 1
OCT
FALL 2026
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