Texas is not really known for fall leaf color but we really have an incredible variety of trees shrubs and vines that deliver breath taking rainbows of color. I stopped a few times going into town a week or so ago and shot about 20 different species of leaves in just two miles.
The first photo is actually a vine in a neighbors yard that is covering the entire trunk of her massive oak tree. If you look closely you will see that this plant falls under the Rhyme “When you see Leaves of Three, You better leave them BE!”
This vine creeps along the ground until it finds either a tree or wall or fence that it can attach anchoring roots to and within a few years the vine will be at the very tops of the tallest trees. Once the vine matures it begins to bloom profusely attracting all sorts of native and non-native pollinators to the high percent of the sugars in the nectar, but this nectars comes from miniscule blooms.
In the fall there are tens of thousands of BB sized white fruit on these vines. The fruit is eaten by over 40 species of birds during migration and these birds digest the fruit surrounding the seeds. The seeds pass through the gut of the birds and often get dropped hundreds of miles from the mother vine creating many more vines the following year.
This is of course the common Poison Ivy Vine here in the USA. While it is a tremendous asset and food and nectar source for wildlife the milky white sap contained inside EVERY part of this plant will create a profusion of boils, blisters and open sores once it gets inside the human body. Burning of the leaves and or woody vines or even the roots of this plant and then inhaling the smoke will create massive damage to the lungs of a human.
These leaves vary in color from vine to vine or probably from different locations and depending on the composition of the soil these leaves will be canary yellow, flaming orange, screaming candy apple red or the darkest, deepest shades of marroon, pratcially a blue black red on occasion.
We gardeners must be aware that when weeding our flower beds that there WILL be sometimes hundreds of these new seedlings sprouting in the rich soils we created for our flowers.
In contrast the second photo is from the Sassafras Tree. The leaves will sometimes have fingers, sometimes just have a mitten thumb or sometimes not any thumb at all.
Early settlers learned from the native Indians to dig up the roots of this tree from the deep sandy soils where it grows. They dried the roots storing the thin bark covering from the roots to boil in water and make herbal teas from this root.
Entire roots were once dug up, chopped up, added sugar to and allowed to ferment in barrels of water and this created the common drink we all refer to as “Root Beer”, once a mild alcoholic drink but now relegated to being a “Soft Drink” created with “artificial” flavors.
Cajun cooking relies on the dried and powdered leaves from this tree to create the unique blend of flavors for their “Gumbo” stews. These powdered leaves are added to the mix AFTER the four to six hours of cooking required to prepare a true Cajun Gumbo. These aromatic leaves are stirred into the pot JUST before you serve the stew.
Leaves are often just like the words we humans often use. What one person views with awe, beauty and grace another person will view quite differently! May we all treasure and hold dear the beauty in what we see and hear and have the wisdom and kindness to let the bitter leaves blow away with the winds. Keith Kridler Mt. Pleasant, texas
Thank you so much Keith for taking the time to write such and informative piece!
I have only seen poison oak in the North. How do you control the ivy – if you want to? I was never allergic to the poison oak until I lived in SW Oregon where it grows like a wild grass and then I became so sensitized to it that I would have problems with it blooming a couple of miles away.
We don’t have much variety around here compared to Texas, but the colors are different each year which gives a sort of variety.
Colleen
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It is so interesting to think about how poison ivy is so useful in the environment, yet can be down right dangerous at times to people. I’ve had similar thought about fire. We get horrendous wild fires around here and one year a fire was burning all along a mountain ridge that parallels this long valley. It seemed like everyone around, including my son and I, were parked along the valley like one big outdoor movie, watching the fire jump and run.
Colleen
It is so interesting to think about how poison ivy is so useful in the environment, yet can be down right dangerous at times to people. I’ve had similar thought about fire. We get horrendous wild fires around here and one year a fire was burning all along a mountain ridge that parallels this long valley. It seemed like everyone around, including my son and I, were parked along the valley like one big outdoor movie, watching the fire jump and run.
Colleen
I have a friend here from Pennsylvania and she says one of her biggest regrets about not being back there is missing the year ’round beauty of the forests. I grew up with green, but I’m learning that those who are not used to it, find it boring.
Colleen Northern California native