Appalachian Fall – Page 12 – LLOYD'S LENS PHOTOGRAPHY LLC

First Splendor 2019

Faint clouds grace the blue sky on the oddly warm October morning. The last significant rain was in August and the forest is thirsty. Rain is required for a colorful Fall and so far the leaves have gone straight from green to brown leaving very little hope for the beautiful colors of the Appalachian Fall. To be honest, we’ve been spoiled the past few years by plenty of rain. But this September was dryer than normal. So I was pleasantly surprised by the spender of the maple trees at the scenic overlook in Mount Nebo West Virginia. The rich golden leaves stood out as I passed by and I knew that I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. The leaves are normally bright yellow but the brown tinged edges give them this orange hue that’s very “October-ish”. The search for a good Fall photo this year has kinda been like panning for gold. I get excited to see a few pops of color here and there but most of it has been dross. Finding this scene was like hitting the motherload.

There’s still hope for more color as the seasonal winds begin to blow. They bring cooler days and with them a chance for rain.

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Morning Mists And Fall Flowers

Color Photography

Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “Morning Mist On Blue Aster” and is available for purchase by the instructions at the bottom of the article.

Softly the morning mists float throughout the the mountains leaving tiny droplets. The rain has shunned my mountain home for more than a month but the dew has formed almost every morning to replenish the soil. The forest edge is alive with the hum of the bees as they diligently visit every bloom. The songbirds chirp their happy songs as the mist continues to lift. The Leaves have been dropping more heavily now and soon I’ll need to deal with the mess in the yard but for now I let nature take its course. Soon the dew will turn to frost and the branches will be bare. But today I’ll enjoy the life before my eyes while I have it.

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White Snakeroot In Morning Dew.

Color Photography

WARNING: Because I often blog about wild edible plants I need to make it clear that white Snakeroot is a deadly poison. — Hello friends! Tonight’s feature image is titled “White Snakeroot In Morning Dew” and is available for purchase by following the instructions at the bottom of the article.

With the passing of the hot humid days in late summer I feel more like stepping out of air conditioning and catching a breath of fresh air. Just a Leisurely stroll through my property. I had spotted a hummingbird a few days ago and was kinda hoping that he’d decided to hang around for a while before heading South. He escaped my lens that afternoon and I was ready for a do-over. I was paused near the Jewelweed because I know that the hummingbirds live the sweet nectar as much as the bees do. Thats when I noticed the newcomer to my patch of wilderness. Small delicate white flowers with odd tubular structures growing in clusters. The canopy of my forest is still thick enough to hide the small songbirds that dart about from branch to branch but I can hear them chirping.

My attention is drawn back to the interestingly delicate flowers. They remind me of baby’s breath in an arrangement. They’re beautiful to look at but unlike most of the plants that I have on my blog these are deadly poison. The poison is how White Snakeroot earned it’s footnote in history. The toxin is able to contaminate not just the milk but also the meat of livestock that eats it. In the 1800s being poisoned by the contaminated milk was actually called milk sickness. According to Wikipedia the fatalities ran into the thousands and was the suspected cause of Nancy Hanks Lincoln, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. Learning this fact does make me wonder how much Snakeroot has influenced pasteurization requirments.

In 1830 the toxicity was uncovered by Dr. Anna Pierce Hobbs Bixby. It’s said that a Shawnee woman taught her all about the plant in addition to how it was used as a poultice on snakebite. ( I am not able to verify medicinal value for this one. I know from personal experience that the bite of a copperhead will heal on it’s own without treatment and therefore it’s very possible that Snakeroot was not the reason some people recovered.)

The risks of contaminated meat and dairy was not enough to prevent people from turning White Snakeroot into an ornamental plant. A particular strain of the plant has leaves that turn dark when exposed to direct sunlight and the cultivar is known as “Chocolate Snakeroot” and is still sold as a landscape plant today.

As for the wild variety that has come to my place I’ll probably just allow it to grow since I don’t have livestock to be poisoned. It does add some beautiful bloom to enjoy in the Fall.

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The Moment Of Change

black and white photography

The wind carries the familiar scent of newly fallen leaves. Change is literally in the air. As I stand in my yard with my eyes closed and accept the touch of the cool dry breeze I can hear the leaves tumbling through the branches. We’ve been in a drought at the end of Summer and a few trees are dropping their leaves early. My boxelder sports a heavy crop of winged seeds that will soon flutter in the wind like little helicopters. If I continue to strain my ears I can hear the squirrel playing in the fallen leaves and a woodpecker laughing at his antics. Last night I listened to the mountian tell it’s nightly story. The owls held congress and the question of who echoed in darkness. To which the bush crickets answered “Katy did”. The moment of change has come to the Appalachian Mountains. I have hope that the setting sun will paint my world with the beautiful colors of Fall.

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The Turning

Color Photography

Don’t let the warm days fool you and take the calendar date with a grain of salt. Summer is over. The Almighty has commissioned a change in the season. I have seen it with my own eyes. I’m speaking of my natural calendar. For me Fall is when the leaves change color. The Yellow Poplar is among the first to change. Even with the long dry spell that we’ve had the leaves turn from a rich green to a cheerful yellow. A lot of people think that the color comes from cool weather but it’s actually in response to the wavelength of the light coming from the sun. Plants are vreally very efficient. The green chlorophyll is only able to use certain wavelengths of light and when those wavelengths are no longer available the chlorophyll dyes and the green goes away. The other colors were always there but they were covered by the green. The yellow color comes from Xanthophyll and the reds from Rodophyll. The tree is still processing sunlight into sugar and will continue to do so until the leaves drop. But the green is no longer needed so there’s no sense in maintaining those cells. Different types of trees have different llevels of the yellow and green pigments and so we get the beautiful mice of colors in the Appalachian Mountains.

At the first sign of changing leaves I start to crave the taste of homemade beef stew that’s been simmering on a woodstove all day. I have already been looking for my favorite oversized flannel shirt and have my boots ready for long walks through open forests. During the summer months the underbrush is likely to be hiding a venomous snake in my area so I get the most use of the trails in cool weather.

The big question this year is will we get to enjoy the Fall colors or will the dry weather drive the forest into an early dormancy. If the tree can’t get enough water to make sugar then it doesn’t need the leaves and shuts down until Spring.

The pop of yellow in this clump of trees does give me hope that we’ll see a beautiful and colorful Fall if it rains soon.

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