While the mountain are still green and lush, there are a few early flushes of color letting us know that Fall is already here and there’s no going back. Two vines makes the first announcement. Virginia Creeper and Poison Ivy. Few other turning leaves offer the brightness and variety of color as poison ivy. None of us want it close by, but 50 feet up the trunk of a big pine seems tolerable, especially in September.
An insect indigenous to southeast Asia caught a ride to the States on some imported landscape plants and attacked our forests of Eastern Hemlock trees. Most of them are dead, but their trunks still stand 90 feet in the air along north facing slopes. The Virginia Creeper vine scales the towering post to collect an uninhibited source of sunlight. They announce Fall for all to see.
More on the fading Hemlock Tree Woolly Adelgid and it’s effect on Hemlock Trees
Virginia Creeper The difference between Virginia Creeper & Poison Ivy