Tree Keys, Fall Leaves, and Blossoms Abound

Autumn is beginning to nudge our summer weather southward.
Many of our perennials on campus are in a blooming frenzy.

Deanna grabbed the camera and captured some beauties.

Yellow bells (Tecoma stans)

Rock Rose (Pavonia lasiopetala Scheele)

Apace plume (Fallugia paradoxa)

Can you communicate with a tree?

Students in my Taste of Science classes have been learning how to get a tree to reveal its name.

Students are learning to read information present on its leaves.

By observing characteristics of the leaves, students learn to process this information using a dichotomous key.

Ruby records her observations.

AJ is working along with Ruby and Ethan, below, using an intermediate process call a KISS (Keep It Simple Students) Key.

In the background is a class favorite, the toothache tree

(Zanthoxylum hirsutum Buckleyii.)

Already changing into fall colors in our gardens are red oak, prairie flameleaf sumac, bigtooth maple and Texas ash.

So, why exactly do leaves change colors in the fall?

Turns out those colors were there all along. For an excellent explanation of the process, see Margeret Bamberger's explanation click here.