New York City is in the midst of peak fall foliage, as a rainbow of autumn colors have emerged on treelines across the five boroughs.
The city’s parks department said New Yorkers have only one more week to take in the eye-catching scene before many trees across the city drop their leaves for the winter. The change began in early October when the leaves on ash trees turned yellow and red. The annual shift will continue until leaves on the final holdout — the mighty oak — transform into a deep brown in late November and even into the winter.
“There's something so romantic and beautiful about the city being blanketed in these really vibrant colors,” said Jessica Einhorn, chief of forestry programs at the parks department. “While I've a little pang of sadness that we're heading into winter and I won't have the foliage to look at throughout the next few months, it's like a celebration of the end of the season, going out with some fireworks with a bang.”
Einhorn noted Central Park’s Great Lawn is a popular spot to take in the foliage, but said the 47-foot-tall cast iron watchtower at Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem is her preferred leaf-peeping location in Manhattan. She also recommended Forest Park and Kissena Park in Queens, the Prospect Park Loop in Brooklyn, St. Mary’s Park in the Bronx and Conference House Park on the southern end of Staten Island.
The leaves change color in the fall as reduced sunlight causes trees to stop making chlorophyll, which gives them a green pigment. In early October, when the city's ash trees become the first to turn, the leaves have an umber effect with yellow on the bottom half of the leaves and reddish tips.
The next in the fall pageant are honey locust trees, which Einhorn said “have very small leaflets that turn a constant and beautiful yellow, and when those leaflets fall, it makes this really beautiful carpet of yellow.”
As the fall season blossoms, the red and sugar maples pop with vibrant reds and orangey pink colors. The black tupelos change into a glossy brilliant scarlet. The pungent smelling ginkgo flashes its fan-shaped golden leaves.
Sweetgum trees, which have star-shaped leaves, are one of the last to change color, and turn into a collage of yellow, orange, purple and green. Central Park has more than 100 sweetgum trees, including a cluster located near the Blockhouse in the Northwoods.
They can also be found in Cunningham Park in Queens and in Staten Island at Wolfe’s Pond Park and Blue Heron Park. To locate specific tree species, fall fans can use the New York City tree map.
Oaks are usually the last type of tree to transform in New York City and some can even hold onto their leaves until the spring.
“Fall is poetically a reminder of the changing of time,” said Melissa Finley, curator of woody plants at the New York Botanical Gardens.
The parks department is hosting several free fall foliage events across the five boroughs over the next week, including bike rides and craft workshops.
“ There's certainly no shortage of places to check out great fall foliage,” said Einhorn. “I definitely encourage everyone to get out while they can. and we'll still see some colors through late November, but it's really spectacular right now.”
