Trees. Two forty-five-foot sugar maples rise from my lawn. I look out a second-floor front window, and see at the top of one tree a hundred or so yellowing leaves. These turning leaves stand out within the maples’ broad summer crowns of green.
A smaller, twenty-foot maple sticks up from a mass of vegetation behind the house. It displays a few dozen orange leaves on one side.
A six-foot newly planted Japanese maple by the stone steps entering my house displays a fan of stems waving orange-yellow leaves. It’s two counterparts, planted within two yards and watered the same amount, are not turning at all.
Three maple trees, of dozens in easy view, show a littlle yellow and orange at their tops. Does the grand turning of the leaves, in full in mid October, always start with a subtle, gradual turning in August?
What makes these few trees the earliest? Less water? More water? Genes? Network architecture of capilary systems passing nutrients to top-most branches?
We have a hint of possible rain today, with high, fast-moving scattered clouds. The yard brightens and dims and brightens again every ten minutes or so.
