Wow is right. Do you know if that was gradual or happened quickly? What kind of trees are they?

tj

I'll wait, someone will guess. My guess about time for the above situation was when the slope there was logged and gave a chance for colonizing by this tree.

Again, just a day ago, I saw the same thing on a much smaller scale on a slope near me.

In my area, those would be conifers and the culprits would be laminated root rot or spruce bark beetle. And yes, the damage can progress very rapidly.

Nope, no one yet. Nothing to do w/diseases.

Mistletoe?

Wisteria "infestation" ?

Surprised that no one has got it yet. But it may be a mid-Atlantic state thingy. To be honest, even I am a bit surprised at the shown local level of this, tho I saw a taste of this some decades ago at Harpers Ferry, WV.

Is it a difference in when a tree wants to break dormancy?

Pretty tricky to discern with pics at that distance. No chance of a close up?

GG, 'fraid not -- it was a FB pic. If I mention one word, it shouldn't be too hard to guess. That word starts with f. One additional clue, it's not wisteria. That extent would have to be some kind of alien, supernatural wisteria. :)

Hard freeze?

tj

That doesn't look like the US to me. Toona sinensis. Flamingo?

Flowering pear.

Bill, flowering pear has white flowers......it's no pear. tsuga's first comment has the right basic question in it.

Floral, that is in the US -- Glen Ferris is on the Kanawha River in WV. That kind of mountainous scene there is typical -- it's essentially a river-gorge in that stretch.

I was looking at the architecture rather than the landscape.

Seems unlikely, but: F for Fraxinus? >> Emerald Ash Borer?

So if it's the US I'm thinking invasive Paulownias. F for Foxglove Tree.

I believe floral got it. I wonder what zone that location in WV is? The flower buds rarely survive the winter here.

Ding, ding, ding..... We have a winner, floral (not surprising)! Either called paulownia or foxglove tree. I mean hardly any temperate flowering tree has that mass of lavender color. And arbordave, we had a dang cold winter here (almost all areas got at least down to -10F or lower), but the flower buds around here seem to be unaffected. I'd assume that area in WV, being down low instead of a high elevation, had similar temps.

What's interesting is that the invasive nature is very localized, never/hardly seen in most areas, but then can rarely see the above in spots. There was a paulownia planting of hundreds of them in south-central PA -- apparently Japan (where they come from) offers a high price for their easily-worked, creamy-white wood.

Visiting Harpers Ferry WV decades ago, there was mass of many lavender-colored paulownias there in early May, but some yrs later all had been removed. There was one single big one on the VA Tech campus in the late 70s.

Below is a pic of some seed-pods in nearby Cumberland, MD.

And a pic I took just a week or so ago -- tree down low along Wills Creek in Cumberland.

Thanks beng! That explains it. :-)

They grow well over here but are not invasive. Unlike in Italy where they colonise roadsides in some areas.

Oh, definitely Paulownias. They used to be restricted where I am to warmer areas along the Greenbrier River, but with global warming they are showing up everywhere.

I'd been traveling but I 100% would have gotten it when I saw it. I knew exactly what it was!

Yeah, UBG, there are patches of them in the DC - Baltimore sprawl area. I was just down in the Germantown, MD area and saw some blooming. In fact, the biggest one I've seen was in the DC area, tho when I was in elementary school, there was a big one across the street from the school.

Yep, close to me, there's a patch right along the I-95 Tydings Bridge over the river.

Good game!

It reminds me of the 'where is this' games we used to play on another defunct gardening forum.