It’s true that we here in Texas do not enjoy the same showy display foliage aficionados can watch in the Northeast.  In fact, we often say the bulk of autumn color in this neck of the woods consists of green turning to brown—all in one week.  And though that often feels truer than it is, finding nature’s gemstones this time of year doesn’t require a trip across the country.

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Photos:

1. Unidentified: this flower has all the traits of an aster, yet the flowers are smaller than a fingerprint, the plant never grows above the grass (thus the flowers are small white spots in the turf), and it matches none of the asters I can find.  So still looking…
2. Autumn foliage surrounding the swamp at Sunset Bay
3. Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense)
4. Dixon Branch riparian woods at the edge of the floodplain showing autumn colors
5. Open woods in autumn
6. American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana)
7. Bald cypress (a.k.a. swamp cypress, southern cypress, red cypress, white cypress, yellow cypress, Gulf cypress or tidewater red cypress; Taxodium distichum)
8. Colorful autumn foliage seen on a small island in the Sunset Bay confluence at White Rock Lake
9. Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
10. Sacred bamboo (a.k.a. heavenly bamboo; Nandina domestica)
11. Autumn leaves the wind collected outside my garage door