Fall colors? From green to gone

Elizabeth Flores, Star Tribune

An early cold snap brought down many leaves, like these at 54th and Upton Avenue S., before they had the chance to turn gold or red.

Cold snap brings down green leaves.

By BILL McAULIFFE, Star Tribune

Last update: October 14, 2009 - 8:52 PM

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Fall is a good time to be delivering the mail, said Jan Eckman. Walking about five miles a day through Robbinsdale, the former landscaping student also collects seed pods and other decorative natural items and enjoys the colors on her route. But this fall has been "just a little weird," she said. "Something's not quite right."

Indeed, yards and streets across much of southern Minnesota have been suddenly carpeted not with the vivid golds and reds typical of autumn, but with a thick blanket of green.

Foresters say last weekend's cold snap killed the leaves on some species of trees before they could display their fall colors. Ash and ginkgo were most dramatically affected. "It's kind of a disappointment," said Tracy Turner, walking her dog Wednesday along Cedar Lake Road in Minneapolis' Bryn Mawr neighborhood, where a line of gingkos had shed all their leaves. "I like the colors."

Leaves generally go from green to yellow, or red, or brown in fall as a result of both shortening days and cooling temperatures, said Jerry Cohen, a professor of environmental horticulture at the University of Minnesota. Cold trumped the declining daylight this year; Friday night's low in the Twin Cities was 26 -- easily a killer temperature and one degree from the record low for the date. Monday and Tuesday also saw lows below 30.

Cohen said this was the first time in 10 years that he has seen the gingko outside his office window drop its leaves while they were green.

The big drop by ash trees has nothing to do with emerald ash borers. And disrobing now won't have any long-term ill effects on the trees. Foresters said the trees have already absorbed the protein they need from chlorophyll, which gives leaves the green color that dominates in spring and summer. After an abnormally dry summer and September, rains at the end of September and the first week in October might mean some fall color is still in the bank.

"I'm still holding out," said Mary Meyer, interim director of the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. "We could have a good weekend coming up."

Bill McAuliffe • 612-673-7646

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