TreesUpstate founder and local artist Katie Jones stands underneath one of her favorite trees with one of her paintings on canvas, Grove Station.
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It's my pleasure to introduce our TreesUpstate Local Fall Tree Color Guide below. The following photos and descriptions are here to help you identify local trees in our area that will soon be painted in red, orange, yellow, pink, brown, and purple.
I'm Katie Jones, and I love trees and color! When I'm not teaching art, you might find me under the trees in my yard or with a paint brush, canvas, and palette of colors in front of me.
When I founded TreesUpstate as a volunteer in 2005, it was in response to a lack of a sound tree ordinance that could preserve our legacy trees in the midst of rampant growth and development. While we still have a lot of work to do, we've come a long way to plant, promote, and protect trees. Thank you for helping us keep care of our trees, preserving Nature's canvas, and making the Upstate a more vibrant and colorful place to live.
Thanks again and here's to happy fall color hunting!
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Local Fall Tree Color Guide |
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Probably the most well-known tree for fall color, the red maple lives up to its name by offering something red year-round. A variety of nursery cultivars for red maple have finessed the timing and the color of the tree to even brighter reds and purples. Commonly planted cultivars include October Glory, Red Sunset, and Brandywine. |
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Sourwood trees aren't as well known, but they're one of the most vibrant red trees in the forest. Not sure what you're looking for? Find a crooked tree with deeply fissured bark and bright red leaves on your nature walk. That's the one! |
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Photo Will Pollard https://flic.kr/p/heUtZH
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Black tupelo or blackgum is similar in size and color to red maple. Challenging to identify because of their basic leaf shape (an entire leaf with no serrations), they make their stand in the fall with deep reds. |
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Photo Katja Schulz from Washington, D. C. via Wikimedia Commons |
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Transitioning into purple-red colors, the dogwood provides some beauty closer to eye-level. Look for variegated leaves colored red, purple, and/or green. You might also see next year's bud popping up from in between the fading leaves! |
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Our most vibrant oak species for fall color is the shumard oak. It's a long-lived red oak with broad leaves and narrow lobes. |
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Photo Katja Schulz via Wikimedia Commons |
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White oaks are often referred to as the grandfather of the forest. Reaching up to 100' tall, they provide benefits for many species of wildlife. In the fall, look for a leaf with rounded lobes, and a wine-red to orange-red color. |
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Maybe best known for sassafras tea and root beer, the sassafras tree boasts 3 different leaf shapes: an entire leaf, a mitten, and a 3-pronged leaf. An edge of the wood species, sassafras has color that varies from yellow to orange to red to purple. |
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The most common hickory species in our area include pignut hickory and mockernut hickory, but you'll also find bitternut hickory, water hickory, and shagbark hickory in the woods. We live in an oak hickory forest, so hickory trees are a hidden gem you'll find just about everywhere. They have pinnately compound leaves with 5-17 leaflets, depending on the species. Hickory trees have some of the brightest yellow color in our Southeastern autumn! |
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Tulip poplar is a tree giant. Find these massive trees in places like Wildcat Wayside off of 276 with a 4ft+ diameter! Look for yellow leaves shaped like cat heads in the tree canopy to find these trees. |
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Most easily identified by their shaggy, peeling bark, river birch trees also have a nice yellow color in fall. You'll find these water-loving trees growing right on the riverbank in Falls Park or near most creeks and rivers across the Upstate. |
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Photo Johannes Plenio via Pexels.com |
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The sugar maple is the gem of the East Coast for fall color. Variations of bold yellow and orange make this the poster tree, especially the farther Northeast you go, where these trees are tapped for the yummy syrup inside. |
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American beech is a unique tree year-round. With smooth, light gray bark, American beech is the graffiti tree--find a highly visible American beech, and you'll also find declarations of love carved into the bark. In the fall, the leaves turn a robust tan color, and they hold onto the branches of young trees throughout the entire winter for a prolonged splash of color. Ever seen the famous Medusa tree in Falls Park? It's an American beech. |
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Thanks for being a friend of trees. Can't get enough tree facts? Check out our youtube channel to go on a virtual tree id walk with TreesUpstate's Program Director, Kylie!
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White Oak
$20,000+
Duke Energy
The Greenville Journal
Hartness International
The Noble Tree Foundation
TD Bank N.A.
Tulip Poplar
$10,000
Amazon
Earth Design
Grassy Creek, LLC
Michelin, N.A.
Sage Automotive Interiors
Schneider Tree Care
Summit Media
Black Tupelo
$5,000
Bank of Travelers Rest
BMW
Christopher Trucks
Fluor
Greater Greenville Parks Foundation
MNI Direct
Piedmont Natural Gas
Prisma Health
Publix Super Market, Inc.
Riverside
Staytion at TR
The Rotary Club of the
Reedy River Greenville
WaterTower ApTs
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Southern Magnolia
$2,500
AFL
Blanchard Cat
Fairway Subaru
Foothills Rotary
Greer CPW
Johnson Controls
Nexus PMG
Pintail Capital Partners
Saint Capital
Southern Management Corporation
TreeDiaper: Zynnovation, LLC
Red Maple
$1,000
BDO Global
Blue Water Civil Design, LLC
Brasfield & Gorrie
The Briles Company
Canal Insurance
Carolina Crafted Construction, LLC
Carolina Power
City of Travelers Rest
Colonial Trust Company
Confluence Outdoor
Dan Ryan Builders
emedia Group
EnviroSouth
First Baptist Church
Foster Victor Wealth Advisors
Freeland & Associates Inc.
Freeland & Kauffman, Inc.
Greenville 360
Greenville Water
Keys Innovative Solutions
NAI Earle Furman
Robins & Morton
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(continued...)
Ross & Enderlin, PA
Shred415
Sidewall Pizza Company
Smith Hudson Law, LLC
Turner Padget Graham & Laney
Upstate Greenery
Carolina Sapphire
$500
Ameco
ArborSource
Arrowood and Arrowood
Boyd Cycling
Bridge City Coffee
Colliers International
Crawford
Davis & Floyd
DP3
Firewater Photography
Fleet Feet Sports
Furman University
The Gallivan Group at UBS Financial Services, Inc.
Go Green Events
Graycliff Capital Management, LLC
Greenville Spinners
Johnston Design Group
KPMG
McMillan Pazdan Smith
Performance Therapy
Public Strategy
Red Oak Developers
Reedy Rides
REI
Robert Rogers, DMD, PA
Seamon Whiteside
Spinx
13 Stripes Brewery
Without Limits
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We are the upstate's friendly face of trees. Would you like to see your company name on this list? Contact Joelle Teachey at 864-313-0765 or jteachey@treesupstate.org to partner together with TreesUpstate to plant, promote, and protect trees in our region.
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#TreesAreGood #PlantPromoteProtect #GotTrees |
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