Leaf Guide - Your Online Source for Information on Leaves
Leaf Guide: Tips on Recognizing Leaves During Fall Foliage
Every autumn, vacationers purchase a leaf guide and set out to find the best locations for colorful foliage. In fact, leaf peeping is a big time money maker and many people depend on the changing of the seasons and the turning of leaves from green to red to make their living. In fact, every year vacationers spend over one billion dollars on foliage vacations.
People travel long distances to see nature’s spectacular display of colors. New England, for instance, is full of tourists from all across the United States and even throughout the world during the first two weeks of October. Everyone is amazed and in awe of the beautiful red, yellow, scarlet, gold and multi-colored leaves. While just looking is enough for some people, others are innately curious and want to find out exactly what they are seeing.
Looking through a leaf guide is a great way to identify what kind of tree you are looking at and to obtain a little information about it. It doesn’t take long to identify several trees from their types of leaves and before you know it, you might be able to recognize a couple dozen different deciduous trees. Deciduous trees are the trees whose leaves change colors and drop off in the fall.
Many people like to collect the beautiful fall leaves to make scrapbooks. One thing you will need to be able to do is identify each leaf so it can be labeled. The first step is to collect leaves of different colors and shapes.
Here is a quick leaf guide to some of the most popular leaves you might see on a typical fall day:
Sugar Maple leaves are among the most beautiful fall colors with many being red, scarlet, and orange. The leaves are about three to five inches in length and width. Their leaf is pointed, three-lobed and the veins have a central line with the rest branching off of it in either direction. The Sugar Maple produces the sap from which maple syrup is made. It is the state tree of Vermont and can be found throughout New England.
Quaking Aspens are the trees with the yellow and golden leaves you have probably seen in Colorado fall foliage photos. The leaves are heart-shaped and they have finely-toothed edges. Instead of having a round stem, they have one that is flat. This causes the leaves to quake and shimmer in the wind.
Northern Red Oak, also known simply as red oak, has leaves that grow alternately and can be anywhere from four to nine inches in length. The oblong leaf can have seven to eleven lobes and bristle-tips. The leaves turn a very nice looking dark red color during fall foliage.