natureswondersbyclyde

     Suburban areas in southeastern Pennsylvania are beautiful with the colored leaves of planted red maple, sugar maple, pin oak and sweet gum trees, burning bush and barberry bushes and other kinds of trees and bushes from mid-October toward the end of November.  It's a joy to me to drive through local suburbs at that time to see autumn foliage brightening that human-made habitat, even during gloomy days.  The warm colors on the leaves of those woody plants are another overwhelming beauty of nature, even in human-made suburbs.         Red maples, pin oaks and burning bushes have brilliantly-red foliage in autumn.  Sugar maples present orange leaves.  And sweet gums and barberries are striking with red, maroon and yellow foliage, all colors on each plant.               Much of the beautiful fall foliage clings to its twig moorings for a few weeks, then flutters and side-slips to the ground, where it creates crispy, colorful blankets of dead, fallen leaves.  And as those leaves fal

     Pin oaks and swamp white oaks are handsome trees at home in moist soil along creeks, and in bottomlands in the eastern half of the United States.  Associates of sycamores, silver maples, river birches, American elms and other kinds of bottomland trees, some of these floodplain oak trees grow to be large and majestic.  All those bottomland trees, including the two oaks, provide food and shelter for a variety of wildlife species.  And their roots help hold down the soil along waterways.      The elegant pin oaks are common along waterways and in bottomlands.  Their lower limbs droop like arms to the ground and they have small acorns, each with a tiny "pin" at its tip.      The stately swamp white oaks have contorted boughs and an overall rugged look.  But they are not common: I've only seen a few in my lifetime, though I never made an extensive search for them.         Pin oaks and swamp white oaks are planted on lawns for their beauties; the pin oaks far more commonly

     Native silver, red and sugar maple trees are planted on many lawns in the United States and Canada because of their handsome shapes, cooling shade in summer and strikingly colored foliage in autumn.      These beautiful maples have characteristics in common, which demonstrates their relatedness.  They have deeply-lobed leaves and paired, winged seeds that spin away on the wind when mature.  Some of those dispersed seeds sprout into new seedling trees, away from the parent trees.  All have sweet sap that can be collected and boiled down to syrup.  And larger trees of all species have variably-sized cavities where wind tore limbs from them.        But these maples have differences, too.  Silver maples have more open canopies and bark that flakes off easily.  Red maple bark is smooth, except on older individuals.  And sugar maples have vertically ridged bark that doesn't break off.      Each of these attractive kinds of maples has adapted to a different habitat than its relatives

     While driving through suburban areas of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in October into November, I've noticed that the colored leaves of sugar maples and red maples, and burning bushes, dominate autumn foliage in those suburbs.  Those woody plants are abundantly introduced to lawns, partly for their beautifully-warm, fall leaf colors that lift human spirits.  And I've noted that those lovely, red and orange colors are accentuated by the evergreen needles of tall white pines and Norway spruces that are also planted commonly on lawns for their beauties.  The contrast of those trees' colors make beautiful scenery in our suburbs in fall.              The maples are native to northeastern North American woodlands, where their brightly-colored, autumn foliage dominates those woods.  But burning bushes have been introduced from northeastern Asia for their beauties.        Sugar maples' leaves generally are a unique shade of orange, but some trees of this kind have yellow