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Like a single bright ornament on a Christmas tree, the crimson leaf on a black gum stood out against the tree’s lustrous green foliage. I saw that recently from the car; we were driving along Route 647, Crest Hill Road, from Flint Hill to Marshall.
T\ibes carrying water to that one leaf had been sealed off. Result: death and transparency of the green chlorophyll cells, allowing the red pigment, which had been there all along, to shine through. That single crimson leaf emphatically announced autumn, the time of leaf color and leaf fall.
Many trees have begun to shed still-green leaves as a way of dealing with the severe drought. Water is absorbed through the roots of a tree, carried up and out through the branches and twigs into the leaves where it is dispelled as vapor into the air. Fewer leaves means the tree needs less water. It’s a safety precaution; a natural process for dealing with lack of rainfall. Nature is telling us that things are under control and trees know how to deal with the drought. My guess is that the big red maple in my side yard has experienced a severe lack of water before. This drought is not new for that tree.
Black gum trees often display a few bright red leaves as early as July so the one I saw from the car is not unusual. Farther up the road, I saw black gum with many leaves that had gone from green to crimson.
One October — many years ago — I saw a large, perfectly formed tree in the middle of a field. The tree glowed with color, a deep crimson. At the time I did not know the tree’s identity but I quickly learned it. I had to know its name. It was a black gum, or bla’gum, as it is called in my part of North Carolina. Scientific name:
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