October 7 Fall Color Report

October 7 Report on Dogwood Color Changes

by Mary Ball

Very few of the trees on the Carson-Newman campus are changing color – except the dogwoods. Many of them are showing a change. But on a lot of them the leaves are just dieing and shriveling up. First the tips begin to turn brown. Then the rest of the leaf gradually dies.

Can you see that only the part near the stalk (petiole) hasn’t turned brown and papery? I hope these trees are still alive next Spring.

I asked a forester to come look at our dogwoods to see if they have a disease. “Heat stress,” he said. According to the Weather Service, the amount of rain Knoxville has gotten so far this year is over 6 inches below “normal”. (“Normal” means the average for the last 30 years.)

The weatherman said last night, “For bright fall colors, we like to see days in the 60s and nights in the 40s.” It hasn’t gotten that cool here yet!

They are predicting that color change will be late this year. And the colors won’t be as bright. It’s been too dry and too hot for a spectacular change!

It’s rainy today, so comparing this week to last week is hard. It looks like more of the tree is showing red than last week. What do you think?

Few if any of the berries have been eaten. I wonder if migratory birds just haven’t flown into our area yet. Maybe all the human activity is scaring birds away. I wonder if some will visit my dogwood next weekend during our Fall Break.

It looks like more leaves are nearly solid red, but many are still green! Can you see the tiny “white lollipops” on the tips of the branches on the left? Those are next Spring’s dogwood flowers!

The leaves in the sun are redder than last week. The leaves that are tucked up under the other branches and close to the trunk are still green. (I took one of these pictures after it rained. Can you tell which one?)

. Last updated on October 7, 2005