While much of the rest of the country has already experienced autumn, fall color usually peaks in the last few weeks of November here in east Texas. We haven’t even had a hard frost yet, though the forecast suggests that is coming Tuesday morning. With the arrival of cooler temperatures and shorter days, plants turn brilliant colors of red, orange, yellow, purple and a myriad of variations between. Our autumn show was pretty strung out over the past few weeks, and below are some of my favorite plants for fall color. You’ll see that many of them are Rhus and Acer with a few other colorful characters that follow. Maybe if you are looking for adding more fall color to your garden, you’ll get some inspiration from the images.
Our native Rhus or sumac species are wonderful plants for fall color. I’ve learned from having Rhus glabra seedings pop up here at the house color is variable; some have barely any color at all. There is a clump of Rhus glabra just up the road in Nat that that always has this nice wine color in the fall.
Most Rhus glabra will turn a more vibrant red at the end of the season.
Another sumac that has spectacular fall color is Rhus copallinum or winged sumac, named for the foliage projections on either side of the leaf’s rachis.
And, these newly planted Rhus aromatica plants at my house are putting on their coat of many colors. This species makes a wonderful low groundcover, though other selections of the species can get taller.
Maples are another genus where one can find a diversity of species offering fall color. Wild Acer rubrum can be hit or miss. This fencerow find glowed bright enough to warrant a stop for some photographs. Don’t you just love those licorice red petioles?
Karen is starry-eyed over this beautiful red maple!
A maple that I’ve learned about since moving to Texas is Acer leucoderme, the chalk maple. It is praised for having some of the best fall color of a maple in the east Texas region.
A close up of the leaves of Acer leucoderme. They tend to be a bit smaller than the typical red maple and sugar maple leaves, but they still have incredible fall foliage.
I have fallen in love with the brilliant yellows of Acer floridanum, our southern sugar maple. We have a forest right across the road where the understory is peppered with these trees that glow in the darkened shade of pines and oaks.
I see many Acer floridanum hugging the forest edge of roadsides.
A decent Acer floridanum leaf on blacktop for some relief.
I’ve long thought that one of the under appreciated traits of Vaccinium is the fall foliage. Even here in Texas, blueberry cultivars like ‘Gulf Coast’ can turn a brilliant red.
Taxodium distichum turn a beautiful bronzy orange at the end of the season. We have one at our house, and I was pleasantly surprised to see the fallen leaves contrasting with these Carex glaucodea.
I have enjoyed seeing our Magnolia macrophylla var. ashei glow in the mornings against the rising sun. Even from a distance outside our bedroom window, you can’t miss its giant leaves changing color. But, the best part is…
… the silvery undersides of the leaves! Such a spectacular silver, it’s almost ghostly.
Parrotia persica also beams in the fall. I delight each autumn that these behind the agriculture building at SFA color up.
Interestingly, this stand tends to be more yellow as I’ve seen other Parrotia that have more reds and purples in the leaves. Could be genetics or the environment.
Another woody that has good fall color is Hibiscus hamabo. It’s buttery yellow flowers in the summer are followed by golden yellow leaves in mid-autumn.
And, you would never guess Asparagus officinalis could color up such a brilliant yellow. Here we see it in the Sprout garden mixed in with other perennials.
And, I saved one of my favorites for last. The other day right down the road from my house, I discovered a black-leaved Liquidambar styraciflua. I know that sweet gums get a bad rap for their troublesome fruit, but check out these amazing leaves that follow!
WHOA! I’ve seen dark-colored leaf forms before, but to have a jet black Liquidambar styraciflua so close warrants propagation attempts.
Wow, wow, wow!
And, since you’ve made it this far, I’ll share a little fall foliage knowledge with you. Notice how the one tip is still green. Anthocyanins, which give trees their red and purple colors in autumn, form new in the fall as the leaves prepare to senesce and fall off the tree. These compounds act as sunscreen, help stabilize the metabolic processes, and also discourage herbivory from insects. This one tip was hidden under the leaf until I pulled it to the top. It’s a good illustration that some leaves have to experience sunlight to cause that color shift.