I’ve enjoyed seeing and photographing the leaves of American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) for a long time. This year I made a special effort to be aware of them as they changed throughout the year, from winterbuds to early, delicate spring leaves, to the robust summer leaves and now, the gorgeous shades of fall.
These are not the same stunners that Maples can be but they are so beautiful, especially “post-peak,” set against the many other trees now without leaves. And you can see the foretelling of the gorgeous brown we’ll see soon with snow for company.
Also there was a great blog piece this week by Kent McFarland about why Beech keep their leaves on the Audubon site.