Tree by tree - the autumn sequence

Other October pages: Introduction to leaf fall • Berries, nuts, seeds and shrubs • Flowers and fungi • Birds • Deer rut, insects and farm animals • Weather

Picture: field maple tinting. Click here for more autumn colour photos.

When different tree species shed their leaves can vary from tree to tree, place to place, and year to year. Nevertheless here is a list of them roughly in the order they are noticed in a typical autumn, with some approximate timings:

The earliest trees you may notice are horse chestnuts. Since 2006 they have been badly affected by the caterpillars of a leaf mining moth, which causes their foliage to shrivel from late summer. This has often made them a prominent sight in September and early October for all the wrong reasons.

From a distance they look like normal tinted trees, but a closer view reveals the sad sight of dead curled-up leaves. Not surprisingly these soon fall, making this the first large tree to go bare in the autumn. Nevertheless in most years some hold on to enough of their foliage to produce some yellow and gold tints in the second half of October, with a very few lasting into the first part of November.

Otherwise among the first trees to shed are crack willows, which often grow beside rivers. They can have a mottled effect, with some dull yellow leaves mixed in with green ones, or just lose their leaves while they are green. They can be already quite thin in the first half of October and bare by the fourth week, though a few leaves may remain on them well into November.

The very similar white willows often do not shed to any significant extent until mid October and may not go bare till the end of general leaf fall. They scarcely tint at all, though can occasionally turn somewhat yellow.

Goat or grey willows, the ones that produce pussy willow catkins in spring, are rather inconspicuous at this time of year: they typically have a mix of dull yellow, gold or brown leaves among green ones, and some can go quite thin even early in October. But others remain well covered until late in November, and may hold onto some foliage into December, well after the end of general leaf fall.

Another tree that can turn early is hornbeam. It can produce quite large patches of tint early in October, or even in late September, often with the surface leaves colouring over a large area while the ones underneath remain green. It then usually starts to turn more generally in mid October. Colours include yellow, gold, and sometimes a pink or reddish tinge.

Full tint on hornbeams is not usually achieved until the first or second week of November (the third week in 2021). There is a pyramid-shaped ornamental variety of this tree found in suburban streets which can shed earlier or last longer than the wild species.

All three of our wild maples also start to turn quite early, but then go on to keep some leaves until the end of leaf fall. Sycamore can show some tint as early as late September, and many go bare by the start of November. However some - often smaller ones - keep some leaves till the end of leaf fall in mid to late November.

Unlike other maples, sycamore often does not produce great colour - usually just muddy yellows and greens - but there can be exceptions that go a bright yellow or even gold, particularly towards the end of leaf fall. The leaves also often have black blotches, which are a fungus; this is actually an indicator of clean air.

Also early to show tint are the dainty leaves of field maple (the only truly native maple in the UK, the other two species being introduced) which produce a mottled effect - some leaves green, some leaves yellow, and some a mixture of the two - from quite early in October, or sometimes mid September.

As leaf fall progresses these can evolve into showers of the purest yellow, while more rarely you might see golds or maroon reds (even fairly early in October). Some yellow showers - as well as some leaves that are still green - then dot the hedgerows right to the end of leaf fall in mid to late November, or even into the first half of December in places.

Our other wild maple, Norway maple, can easily be mistaken for sycamore but can be distinguished by the pointed tips to its leaves. It usually starts to tint in mid October but is at its best in late October and the first ten days or so of November, when it can produce bright yellow colours (and very occasionally golds or even reds). A few leaves may then last till the end of leaf fall.

There are other ornamental maples in our parks and city streets which tint at similar times to Norway maple. One that finishes a good deal earlier is the red maple, which brings a touch of the American fall to our suburban streets with a spectacular display of red foliage in early October. It can be bare as early as mid month.

Shrubs are thining out in October too. Many are dealt with on the next page, but two worth mentioning here, because they are very prominent in the countryside and contribute a lot to autumn colours, are hawthorn and blackthorn. They are slowly shedding leaves from early September (even August) onwards and can be bare as early as the third week on October. That being said, some foliage invariably manages to hold on in some places until the end of leaf fall.

Hawthorn and blackthorn leaves can be almost any colour at any stage - yellows and golds among green leaves quite early in the autumn, but also some green leaves left well into November. Blackthorn sometimes adds pinkish tones, and both species can produce vibrant red tones due to anthocyanins (see Introduction to Leaf Fall). Notice too how blackthorn twigs, which are soft and flexible in summer, harden into sharp thorns as the leaves fall.

Elder is another very common shrub, but generally loses its leaves very inconspicuously, showing only a very slight lightening to their green colour, or a faint yellowing. However occasionally it can produce yellow, pink and even maroon tints. Elders can be bare in places even at the start of October, and widely by mid month. But they may then retain a very few leaves on their upper twigs even after general leaf fall has ended.

Back with the trees, birch can show some tint as early as late August and reliably does so in September. By the start of October it is producing an attractive mottled effect – some leaves green, some yellowy-gold. Towards the end of leaf fall all the remaining leaves become a wonderful golden shower and on some trees they can linger into late November or even early December. Once the leaves have gone you can see the buds of next year's catkins, which have been on the tree since July, and maybe also desiccated seed cylinders.

Limes are another tree that reliably has a few tinted leaves scattered about amid the green ones in September or even late August. As early as the second week of October the tint then becomes more widespread on some trees, but limes are remarkably variable in their timing and some remain fairly green till the end of the month or even into November.

Colours are usually a very dull yellow until November, when the remaining foliage can suddenly turn a bright yellow (or more rarely a yellowy-gold) as part of the final phase of leaf fall. Brown seed wings may remain on the tree after the leaves have gone.

Sweet chestnuts can also show a bit of tint from late August or September, and in October often have a mix of greens, yellows and maybe some golds. But it is not usually until the early to middle part of November that they become a noticeable feature of the woodland, producing a glorious kaleidoscope of gold and coppery tints in their remaining foliage. They usually then manage to keep a few leaves till the very end of leaf fall.

Hybrid black poplars shed leaves gradually, starting in August or early September, and finishing usually by the end of October or the first week of November. They do not produce much colour on the tree - just a muddy yellow, and sometimes not even that - though if you look closely, foliage that seems mainly green from a distance can have more colour than you expect. The fallen leaves also turn a vibrant yellow, and occasionally the leaves still on the tree do that too.

Lombardy poplars shed at roughly the same time as hybrid black poplars, though possibly finishing slightly later. Usually they only manage a very faint yellow at best, but can produce a muted golden colour under sufficient provocation. On the whole their leaf fall is not much noticed, however.

On the subject of inconspicuous trees, that is true of several that are so prominent in the early spring. for example apple trees, including wild crab apples, which are covered in blossom in April, shed their foliage slowly during October without any significant tinting.

Meanwhile the leaves of common whitebeam, so noticeable for their greyish colour when they come out in late April, either just shrivel up before falling, or are an unattractive mix of dull yellow and brown. Oddly they are much more noticeable once they are on the ground, when they are distinguishable by being brown on one side and grey on the other. Many are already bare at the end of October, but some may keep some leaves into the second week of November.

By contrast Swedish whitebeam, usually a street tree, can produce fine gold, red or coppery colours. These can appear even early in October but are at their best at its end, with a few leaves maybe lasting until the middle of November.

Still with the inconspicuous trees, cherry plums, which seem so numerous in March when their blossom comes out, produce dull yellow leaves amidst other green ones, but are hard to tell apart from blackthorns.

Rowans - more often a street tree in this part of the world, but sometimes found in the wild - are already shedding early in September and can produce some gold and even pink or red tints. But they often lose their leaves before you even notice. They can be thin as early as mid October, though they may also hold onto a few leaves until well into November

Lastly, elms produce yellow tints, rather muted to begin with, but sometimes turning bright yellow towards the end of leaf fall. English elms must have been a fine spectacle in autumn before Dutch Elm Disease in the 1970s killed most of them off: nowadays they lurk as shrubs in hedgerows, where at a casual glance they are easy to mistake for hazel. Wych elms, which are actually the native English species, though more common in the north of England than in the south, still grow into full-sized trees.

Back with common countryside trees, leaves can start to fall from ash as early as July, with an uptick in the second half of September: by mid October you start to see quite a lot of them on the ground. This is a tree that often sheds almost entirely green, or at most with a pale greeny-yellow tinge, and is not untypically bare by the end of October. However, it is quite a variable species, and long after all the ash foliage seems to have gone you may come across one that has just shed a load of fresh green leaves.

Just occasionally ash foliage turns a bright yellow, sometimes in response to unexpectedly cold nights early in the season (as happened in 2008 and 2018), but at other times towards the end of October. In such cases do not confuse them with ornamental robinias or black walnuts in parks and gardens, which have similar looking leaves that turn an intense yellow, and which can last into the first week of November.

If you had to give a prize for the best autumn colours to be seen on a wild tree in the south east, it would probably go to wild cherry, but only in some years. Found in city streets as well as woods, but not to be confused with the ornamental park cherries (which are cherry plums: see above), its leaves can produce spectacular golds and pinks.

This usually happens towards the end of October and is most reliably seen on street trees. It can happen in the wild too, making the trees shine out in the landscape, but conditions only seem to be right for this in some years, and then only on some trees. 2016, 2019 and 2020 were good years - in the case of 2019 despite October being mild and wet - while 2021 and 2022, both also mild, produced a few nice rural displays. By contrast in 2018 lots of sunshine and cold nights, which should have been ideal for producing the best hues, failed to produce much colour at all in wild trees. 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2023 and 2024 were similarly disappointing.

The other great autumn spectacle in the south east is beech woods, most notably in the Chilterns, but also elsewhere. The transformation of these to deep yellows and golds, and then on to a fine copper colour, is breathaking - but is not easy to catch at the right time. There are two phases. From early October the exposed faces of beeches - the trees on the edge of woods or standing alone in fields - can already be showing good areas of tint. But the colour does not penetrate down inside the wood, where foliage remains largely green.

Phase two is when the colour does reach down to path level, at which time a walk through a beech wood is a riot of golden hues. In the past this sometimes occurred early as the last week of October (2008-2012, 2015 and 2020), but these days seems to be usually in the second to third week (2017, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024)(a week earlier in 2018 and 2019, more in the third week in 2013 and 2016). Some dead leaves can then remain on saplings or lower branches right through the winter, while beech hedges that have been clipped in the past year retain a full set of dead leaves until spring.

Not surprisingly for the king of the forest, oaks tends to be among the last trees to fully turn colour, usually remaining almost entirely green in October, though some can show flecks or patches of yellow or gold tint right from the start of the month, or even from mid September. Don't confuse these native oaks at this phase of autumn with the ornamental oaks (such as Turkey oak or red oak), often planted in parks, which have much larger leaves and produce striking gold and copper colours, peaking in late October or early November.

A few native oaks may be more widely tinted or even bare by the end of October: however full tint mostly occurs in November - in the first to second week in 2020 and 2024; the second week in 2017 and 2018; the second and third week in 2019 and 2021; the third week in 2006, 2013, 2014 and 2016; the third to fourth week in 2023, and the first week of December in 2022. In 2015 there was no defined time when the oaks were at their best, with just a slow and patchy tint and shed throughout late October and November.

At best, oaks go a lovely golden colour, but this rarely lasts long, with the tint soon fading to a brown rusty colour. Even then a few stubborn green leaves may still remain. Some oaks then hang on to dead leaves for a time after leaf fall is over - usually into the first ten days or so of December, but in places for longer. As with beech, a few leaves may then remain on lower branches or saplings right through the winter.

By the time the oaks are at full tint, leaf fall is about over. Hazel is the main tree still retaining leaves in the countryside at this time. It can start showing some minor flecks of dull yellow foliage as early as the end of August and fairly often does so in September, but generally just remains in this state, thinning slowly and still with a lot of green leaves, until (or a bit beyond) the end of leaf fall. It can sometimes produce a brighter yellow at the very end. Note the way that individual leaves sometimes turn yellow from the outside edge inwards. Once the foliage has gone you can see next year’s catkin buds, which have in fact been there since July.

Late in the leaf fall process you may also still find a lot of foliage on the majestic London planes of our streets and parks, though they have been quietly shedding leaves (and producing some dull yellowy tints) since early October, or occasionally in a small way from late September. Towards the end of leaf fall you can sometimes get some gold or browny-gold tints (or even red, but this is very unusual), and once they have fallen, the enormous leaves – some as big as dinner plates – make the city streets slippery and pile up in golden drifts.

Another late survivor is alder, whose leaves never tint and which grows mostly by rivers or in damp places. It sheds slowly throughout October and into November, and then inconspicuously dumps the rest of its leaves at the end of leaf fall, with the occasional tree holding onto a few leaves into December, by which stage they are very hard to spot amid all the cones and catkin buds still on the tree.

You might also be surprised to see weeping willows still looking quite green in November. This seemingly delicate tree is in fact very tough, being one of the first to put out leaves in spring (see March trees) and one of the last to drop them in autumn, routinely having foliage until late in November, and sometimes even into the first half of December.

Mostly weeping willows shed green, or with some faint yellow tints, but right towards the end of leaf fall it can sometimes produce quite good yellow or even yellowy-gold colours, as was the case in 2018, 2023, and to a lesser extent 2020. From a distance it can be hard to tell if this is coming from its leaves or from its bare yellow twigs, however.

One last hardy tree, often overlooked but producing a lovely gold colour when it finally turns, is the larch, the only needle-bearing tree to lose its leaves. This only happens at the end of the leaf fall, typically these days in the third or fourth week of November (a week earlier in 2019 and 2024). Once fallen, the needles make a vibrant orange carpet on the woodland floor.

More October pages:

• Introduction to leaf fall
• Berries, nuts, seeds and shrubs
• Flowers and fungi
• Birds
• Deer rut, insects and farm animals
• Weather

© Peter Conway 2006-2024 • All Rights Reserved