Autumnal Color.

This is the autumn color on the maple tree we have grown from seed.  It's parent is a Japanese Maple  named "Bloodgood".  Bloodgood has grown in our front yard for about 25 years.  It's abundance of seeds have sprouted more than a few times.  This one we have kept.  It is not true to it's parent.  The parent has burgundy red leaves through the year.  This one has green leaves tinged with red in the summer and this is the fall coloration.   In the fall the parent's leaves are a less dark red color, but don't have the variation in color of the seedling.  This tree after 5 years is about 5 feet tall. 

These are the leaves of the Solomon's Seal.  They change color suddenly and drop quickly leaving the stems bereft.                                                                             

The cyclamen are not exactly fall color, but they signal fall.  During summer you would never know that they were there.  The corms swell beneath the ground, sending flowers in mid to late August.  The inverted flowers appear before their leaves are out.  The leaves are coming now.  The ants love the seeds of these plants and we find small flowers growing from the concrete joint between the driveway and the garage.  The way they form their seeds is an added bonus.  The flower stems curl up like a spring with a round developing seed pod growing where the flower once was.  This plant had a mass of little springs that the emerging leaves have now hidden.

There is still plenty of green in the woods behind us.  The Cottonwood and Aspen are still green, the big leaf maple is just starting to turn in wonderful yellow.  There is more beauty to come.