Somber day

I spotted these Birch leaves not too far from home, and I've seen similar collections of deciduous-trees-turning-color-unusually-early in many other places. To be sure, the Great Change in internal leaf chemistry has been under way for a few weeks, as declines in daylength are telling the foliage factories to begin tailing off the production of chlorophyll, the source of green. The ultimate source of energy. But in a normal year, which is to say a year with plentiful rainfall, you wouldn't be noticing any change just yet. The classic New England spectacle, the one that clogs the roads with leaf peepers, is almost a month away, so this display has a very different cause... albeit with the same result. This early color show is essentially a cri de coeur, a wailing of leaves in their death throes. The culprit is the persistent drought, and with the region in its grip, many of the trees trying to eke out a living in marginal places—rocky outcrops in this case—are deciding to cash in their chips early, go yellow, and ditch their foliage, thereby preserving their internal moisture. With an luck—and a little rain—this desperate conservation strategy will enable them to live through this time of low water.