I've been wanting to show off my CA natives in their fall colors for a while. We've had an unusually long and colorful fall season, though many of the most stunning displays are street trees that are not native to the area. Still, the Ribes above (I think this is Ribes aureum) is certainly quite stunning.
I also like what the thimbleberry has done, the pattern has been building on the leaves for a few weeks and it's pretty as a picture.
Some of the best displays can be seen when hiking. The big leaf maple and the smaller vine maple both with large golden leaves don't even look as if they belong here, just a few feet from some evergreen oaks.
I took these photos a few weeks ago. Since then, it's been so cold that the picture most likely changed.
In my own garden, a non-native Japanese maple has been especially stunning this year - until a single night of wind and rain removed all the leaves at once. But before that, weeks and weeks of color.
Latecomers to the fall color extravaganza are the Ribes speciosum. They started out like this maybe a month ago.
And then, slowly, slowly they've changed more and more, until I saw them light up the corner of the garden yesterday.
And of course I had to make some photos of the show - it really was special.
Meanwhile, in the front, Aristolochia California is also turning yellow before turning brown. I feel so lucky to enjoy those fleeting days of color, before some of our plants go dormant.
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