Central Texas Fall Foilage

Some people say we have no Fall in Central Texas. Now I know we don’t have the Fall that exists up in the northeast, however, we do have some Fall color here. I took this photo this morning of my beautiful Red Oak tree in my front yard in Leander, Texas. The colors are vibrant shades of red and orange with a hint of green that won’t linger much longer. Every day the colors get more vibrant and beautiful. I planted this Red Oak tree just a couple of years ago to provide Summer shade for my driveway and in Fall it looks its absolute showiest. There are other plant species in the Austin, Texas area that have Fall color. The invasive species Chinese Tallow and Nandina that have taken over many local parks turn color for Fall. Unfortunately, these are not good plants since they are non-native and invasive. Another tree a lot of builders install in new subdivisions is the Bradford Pear. These turn purplish red in the Fall and bloom white in the Spring. We do have many native Texas species that turn color as well.  The Pink Muhly or Gulf Muhly grass Muhlenbergia capillaris looks glorious in the Fall with billowing, feathery purple pink plumes. I have that in my front yard as well. Lost Maples in Vanderpool, Texas is a great park to go explore to see the Uvalde Bigtooth Maple trees but local areas have some color too. I invite you to go explore some parks and natural areas and see some Texas Fall color.