Some honeylocusts.

Beng, that's about the most vibrant yellow I've seen in a Swamp White Oak.

We're getting great yellows from the hickories and tuliptrees this fall.

Seems to be a good "yellow" year. Last year was a more orange/red year.

Still plenty of deep reds and purples so far, but oranges seem to be trending more towards the red side (sugar maples) around here, I think due to the nights in the 30s and 40s early this month.

There are some GOOD colors from the Ashes this year, too - such a damned shame they'll all be dead in 5 years from what I've been hearing (more sitings of EAB locally).

Hair, the swamp white oak has a couple of acorns already.

Yup, yellows -- even some nice yellows on black walnut nearby. Most yrs that isn't the case.

Very good fall-color & should continue for a few more weeks.

Swamp white oak bark:

Larix laricina

Populus tremuloides and friends

Sweetgum

A bit blurry, but this Aesculus flava (Yellow Buckeye) is a nice yellow.

Sugar maple.

We're in a stretch of great weather and decided to leave the fall chores behind to enjoy the beauty of Black River State Forest.

We get some decent color most years, but nothing compared to the Upper Midwest, Great Lakes, and New England.

WOW.

Acer japonicum, 'Aconitifolium', Fernleaf Fullmoon Maple. It appears the rest of the leaves will turn red in a few weeks. Can't wait.
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Acer circinatum, our native Vine Maple. This picture is looking northeast just behind the house.
I live near a town called Maple Valley. It used to be called Vine Maple Valley.
Mike

This has been a very good year for fall color: intense and long-lasting. Let's hope winter is just the opposite...

Nice couple of sugar maples.

Blackgum (Nyssa sylvatica)

Bitternut hickory (Carya cordiformis)

This post was edited by hairmetal4ever on Sun, Oct 19, 14 at 15:00

Nice red sweetgum. Smaller Liriodendron just behind and to the left.

This post was edited by hairmetal4ever on Mon, Oct 20, 14 at 12:37

Zelkova

Red maples

Appreciate your pics, hair. Bitternut is a surprisingly common forest tree, here at least, and towers over the surrounding canopy. One close by is easily over 100' tall.

The large, wide scarlet oak you show well above is impressive too.

Here's a large bitternut near Hagerstown, Md in the limestone soils w/a selfie:

Small & past its peak, but still an attention grabber -- 9 yr old sourwood:

The Liriodendrons are nice this year, too, but for whatever reason, I haven't been able to get a good pic of one. Most of them I see along the road while driving, and don't want to wreck trying to get the pic.

Quercus ellipsoidalis. I've got a woods full of this oak, which range from brilliant scarlet to dull brown.

Well, my 2 Q. Alba's are making a liar out of me, they are turning burgundy/ burnt red now after the ugly yellow green and brown that is on some leaves, go figure. I will take pics soon, there are a few red oaks with red starting, they are Nuttalls oaks and a possible Shumard. My swamp whites are yellow with mostly tan, Beech is getting yellow etc. Nice ellepsoidalis Basic.

Would you say that Q. ellipsoidalis is possibly superior to Q. coccinea for some situations?

I'd lean towards coccinea being more reliable in color overall...

Good question and hopefully one of the oak experts will share their thoughts on these two species. From what I've read, some botanists aren't even sure they're separate species. Q. ellipsoidalis is very tolerant of marginal sandy soils, so that might be a situation where it is superior to coccinea. A downside of ellipsoidalis is its susceptibility to wilt, but I'm guessing Scarlet Oak is also.

Yeah, it's my understanding that all Oaks in the "red" group are susceptible to oakwilt. That would include Scarlet, Hill's, N. Red, Shumard, Nuttall, Black, Pin, etc...

There's actually a nursery hear that I saw selling both coccinea and ellipsoidalis. Odd me, since Scarlet is native here and fairly well known, but Hill's Oak is not. When I saw the trees neither species was in fall color yet, but it just made me wonder if there's a specific reason they were selling ellipsoidalis as well as coccinea.

Looking at them, I really couldn't tell them apart from one another aside from the labels.

NHbabs and Whaas, beautiful color you had up north this year! Wow the Sweet gums are gorgeous - I have a youngster, about 8 years old, not showing any color yet. I hope it has color like that when it grows up. :) Many nice yellows and gorgeous maples on this thread. Basic, that Quercus ellipisoidalis is outstanding!

It's almost cliche, but I think Acer saccharum is the queen of fall color. A local cemetary has many gorgeous sugar maples that evidently they have been planting for over 100 years. I stopped by yesterday to check them out, unfortunately they were mostly past peak, but there was still some color.

A couple of old-timers still holding their leaves, in the older part of the cemetary - these are at least 100 years old.

This post was edited by terrene on Tue, Oct 21, 14 at 19:35

In the newer section of the cemetary, there are younger, but still gorgeous sugars growing.

The color is amazing...

I agree Terrene. Sugar Maple is the queen.

That big one in the first pic is amazing!

As far as sweetgum, it seems to me sweet gums actually color better further south. They were touchy as far as fall color in Ohio when I lived there, sometimes freezing while still green, but here in Maryland that usually color pretty well. Since they actually seem to start coloring earlier here than they did there, it makes me believe that it has something to do with length of growing season more so than day length or temperature. I could be wrong about that though

Oaks seem to be either outstanding or barely worth mentioning (so far) this year.

Sugar maples in Wisconsin on 10-18-14.

Nyssa sylvatica

Thought it was neat since it's not supposed to grow this far west. It's only the second one I've seen around here.

This post was edited by Elektron on Wed, Oct 22, 14 at 4:54

We had wind and 2" of rain overnight. LOTS of leaves down. The pair of sugar maples I posted a few days ago are now both almost entirely bare of leaves.

Yes they do go by fast. But I love that colorful carpet of leaves that a sugar maple makes underneath the trees. They even look pretty in the road in the pic that Nurseryman posted, although I know they are a hazard on the pavement.

Had given up on this little ginkgo that I grew from collected seed ever coloring well -- usually frost just blackens the leaves & they fall in a day:

This post was edited by beng on Thu, Oct 23, 14 at 17:17

Shellbark hickory, with northern catalpa behind/right:

I never thing of Catalpa as having any color really. The one I had back in Ohio just stayed green until a freeze killed them. Seems anything below about 28F would just turn them to mush, and they would quickly fall.

Here's mine. Baby sugar maple on Hole #8.

Acer truncatum 'Fire Dragon'
last week completely green

Taxodium distichum 'Mickelson' aka Shawnee Brave
Green last week too

That little sugar maple is amazing, littlebug! Is it a seedling tree or a cultivar?

Dax - I'm glad to see Fire Dragon colors up well in more northern areas and not too late to avoid freezes. I was thinking of one myself (zone 7 MD) and thought it would do well, but also for my dad in Ohio (zone 5/6) and was concerned based on reports from the South that it might color too late in Ohio. But since it does well in IL it probably would do OK in OH, too.

No color to speak of on the baldcypress here yet, but I expect it very soon.

American hornbeam and dwarf fothergilla to the left.

Sourwood about two weeks ago.

I love Sourwood, but from what I see they're almost painfully slow-growing. As in, they look like shrubs for 15 years.

Yeah, it's been in the ground for three seasons and it's barely grown a foot.

That sugar maple on the golf course is such a brilliant orange and with the back lighting it almost looks like glowing coals. No doubt it's a cultivar, to have such exceptional color, and being in the middle of a highly cultivated landscape.

The Sourwoods are really nice - I knew they had great color, but had no idea they were so slow growing. I'm still adding it to my wish list.

I had to comment on the sugar maple as well. It is beautiful.