Barberry color, Babcock

The highlight of any autumn hike is the foliage show, but these days, as fall begins its slow walk towards monochrome, the color highlight is the increasing lack of color. Most of the leaves are not only past peak, they're past present, as in, on the ground and going brown. However, there are a few species, if you know where to look, that are starting their own foliage finale. Among the most eye-catching is a pair of shrubs, neither of them native to the area but both so gorgeous right now, when everything else is bare, that it's easy to see why folks planted them. This one is an Oriental Barberry—the other is Burning Bush—and they're both true to the "burning" part of the common name. They're a joy to behold, well, for a brief moment, but when you notice them growing luxuriantly and inappropriately thick in the middle of woods, to the detriment of everything native, another meaning of the word "burning" comes immediately to mind.