Leaf Watching: The Comox Valley Top Five

My toddler son is keen to collect fallen leaves, clutching fistfuls in each hand and sorting them by shape and colour. He doesn’t know which trees the leaves belong to yet, but I am happy that he is out noticing things and exploring nature.

Most of the broad-leaved deciduous trees (trees that shed their leaves in the fall) are actually easy to recognize with practice. To start with, here are brief descriptions of the “top five” kinds of leaves that one is likely to see in the Comox Valley this fall.

Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)

The bigleaf maple has the largest maple leaves in all of Canada, and the large yellow and rusty fall leaves provide some of the best fall colours in our area. Bigleaf leaves are deeply five-lobed. The brown V-shaped winged seeds fly down like little helicopters.

Maple trunks and limbs are often covered with luxuriant clumps of moss and ferns. The porous, calcium rich bark encourages plant growth. Douglas maple (Acer glabrum), is the only other common maple species in our area. This is a much smaller, more shrub-like tree that grows to ten metres high. Continue reading »

Filed under Nature Writing | Tags: Bigleaf Maple, Comox Valley, Garry Oak, Leaves, Pacific Dogwood, Red Alder | Comment (0)