Leaf Fall Franklin 1997 - 2001

Note the double wave of leaf fall, with a rise in week 39 and 40, then hitting the peak in weeks 42 through 44.
Generally leaves seem to fall about 10 days after max color.
The Following is reprinted from "Dancing Trail Newsletter", September, 2000 and October, 1998:

The FIRST wave is the "blush": a long, slow process of somewhat pastel yellow, tan and orange from greenbriar, woodbine, dogwoods, gums, dog hobble, magnolia with occasional bright reds. The SECOND wave is the intense colors of birches and tulip poplars, sumacs, buckeyes, sourwood. THIRD takes us from "some" color to "a lot of" color, with the locust, hickory, chestnuts, walnuts. By this time, falling leaves from the second and third wave have become a constant part of the woodland experience, and a leaf accumulation becomes substantial on the ground. The FOURTH wave involves the "Big Show", and include the red maples, sassafras, cherries, mountain maples, striped maples, sugar maples and some ironwood and white ash. Finally, the FIFTH wave comes after hard freezes turn the white oak family, the red oak family, and beeches. The possibility that all these would occur together is nil, although waves 2 & 3, and 3 & 4 could overlap and occasionally waves 2, 3 & 4 could overlap as they did in 1996.

As a photographer, I try to work with each wave of color, concentrating by using contrasting colors in the first two waves, working in the intimate vistas within 100 meters of the photographer , and going to "solitaire settings" in the waves two and three, by placing one or two trees against a forest with its supporting colors form other trees and wildflowers; this gives a chance to use the Balanced and the Harmonious color schemes. I will often bracket, making one photograph with Balanced colors, then changing the composition slightly and making a Harmoniously colored picture. You can also make interesting monochromatic color photographs, especially with maples and sourwoods. The third and fourth waves offer the vista opportunities, and finally, in the last wave, there are some opportunities for mood pictures of a few leaves against a mostly bare forest with leaf fall as a base; often I compose these in early morning or late evening light and use the full nine dimensional focal composition techniques.

What accounts for the differences in color timing? Everything. The length of the growing season (which means the date of the last freeze in spring), the amount of and rate of rain, the occurrence of certain astronomical dates (July 28 & Oct 14) when diurnal light has diminished by at least 5% from maximum and half time) Also, the different elevations on the mountains affect the rate of coloration. Also, the siting on the mountain: north side usually goes earlier than south side; east quicker than west. Soil thickness and slope also matter.Then along with this solar control pattern, the moon plays its role influencing the actual timing of the changes. We usually don't have the great bands of color that often sweep (briefly!) across the western mountains of Colorado. Our colors are much more variant , longer lasting and clustered in different areas.

There is an Old Husband's Tale to the effect that a "heavy leaf fall" indicated a cold winter to come. This would imply that more leaves fall than normally fall, therefore that the leaves "knew" last April when they came out that the winter to come was going to be tough, so there would be more leaves. (Actually it would the be summer before as the buds for the following year were being formed!) A more likely story is that as a serious winter develops and comes in quickly, the 5 waves of leaf drop may be pushed into just one or two leaf falls that are very close together, or maybe just one big one.

© John Womack, 2001. All rights reserved.

Note: I had placed 7 plastic laundry baskets in the forests surrounding my home in Franklin (after spray painting them green, brown, black) and counted the leaves and tree species each Sunday. From this very unscientific survey I developed this august looking data field. This was accompanied with frequent trips into the surrounding mountains and all that information was also factored into the "wave theory". I quit after 2001 because my wife and I preferred to spend 2 to 3 weeks in Europe each autumn, usually in late September through mid-October.