October has gone again, has gone again, and in Virginia the chinkapins are falling.
But in Chicago the leaves are turning; not as good a show as last year, but we have some nice bits. Here are four photos I took yesterday right outside my office, on the way to where I get lunch noms. The student union (“Reynolds Club”) is the building to the left (click all photos to enlarge):
Here’s the door (left) I go through on the way to get noms:
A close-up of the ivy (or Virginia creeper) -covered walls:
And the red tree to the right in the photos above. Can anyone identify it? (I can’t.)
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
— Ezra Pound (“In a Station of the Metro”)
A beautiful campus.
The splendor of fall foliage in eastern North America is a phenomenon without parallel in the rest of the world, and something not to be taken for granted if we are fortunate enough to live in its midst. Here is what Thoreau had to say about it, in one of the last things he published before he died: http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/1862oct/thoreau.htm. Note how the poetry of his prose relies upon well-informed botanical detail for its specificity.
Of course, both of the plants pictured above are Asian species. The first, the misleadingly-named Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), is indeed closely related to our native Virginia creeper (possibly the red-leaved vine highest in the first photo). The second, burningbush (Euonymus alatus), is rapidly becoming an invasive species of woodlands.
Yeah that’s what I meant when I said “Japanese Maple”….yeah that’s it, I meant “asian invasive thing” yeah. 🙂
I’d guess that red tree is a Japanese Maple but I’m not certain. The fall foliage has been very nice this year, but I find it sad and your first quote is apt.
Definitely not a Japanese Maple. A Burning Bush, I think.
I agree: Burning bush (Asian version: Euonymus alatus). Size and leaf shape are correct.
+1
Agreed – Burning Bush
Yup !
Definitely a burning bush.
The red shrub looks like a Burning Bush.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euonymus_alatus
What a gorgeous campus! So nice to see the Autumnal splendour coming in.
Winged Euonymus or Atheist “Burning Bush”
Brings to mind another poem, can’t remember the author:
Red petals in the dust
under a tree;
even in so small a thing
beauty may be —
even in so small a thing,
beauty may cry
cry to be manifest,
once ere it die…
Nice ones, especially the tight shots. Well done!
The ivy is my favorite. Very nicely done!
Nice.
What an extraordinarily beautiful campus! I think students do better, whatever they are studying, when they are surrounded by beautiful buildings and landscape.
pretty sure the “…ivy (or Virginia creeper)…” is Parthenocissus tricuspidata, common name: Boston ivy.
Yes, definitely.
The bright red shrub is definitely (Euonymus alatus)or Burning Bush – possibly even an older example of the extremely common varietal ‘Compactus’ or Dwarf Burning Bush. The distinctly ‘winged’ stems and unmatched fire red fall colour are dead giveaways. However, the climbing vine pictured is actually not Virginia Creeper(Parthenocissus quinquifolia, but rather the closely related Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus cuspidata). They are sometimes grown in concert, but it’s difficult to tell from the one close-up picture.
I had no idea they were in the same genus! Thanks for the info.
Some previous entries have ID’d the plants. And yes, the campus looks quite beautiful! Here are my best guesses as to the identity of the plants in your photos:
1. The Ivy (also prevalent at Yale University, as I remember it) is most likely Boston ivy, not Virginia Creeper. VC has palmately compound leaves. Both do turn red in the fall though and are closely related (Parthenocissus tricuspidata for Boston, P. quinquefolia for VC). I’m struck by the variation in red coloration on the vine and wonder if it is related to where those leaves are most closely attached to roots somewhere. What’s also really interesting is to look closely at how the vine sticks to walls. It has coiled tendrils (Darwin investigated how strong they were by attaching weights to them) with “pads” at the end. When those pads touch a solid object, genes are turned on that release a glue of some sort, and that sticks the tendril permanently to the object. Now, how cool is that?
2. The low, red tree to the right of the second photo is most likely burning bush (how ironic, except for the fact that it doesn’t burn forever without consuming itself), which is Euonymus alatus, or a close relative. They are among the most bright red of all the fall plants.
John Scalzi is bringing his daughter to see your University, WEIT gets a mention in the comments see here
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/11/01/off-to-chicago/
The summer-flower has run to seed,
And yellow is the woodland bough;
And every leaf of bush and weed
Is tipt with autumn’s pencil now.
John Clare
Beautiful shots. I am a huge fan of fall colours and go every year to Algonquin Park to enjoy them in all their glory.
Fantastic! I have never seen something like this in my life, it’s inspiring, literally. 🙂
November
No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon –
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member –
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! –
November!
Thomas Hood
(On the other hand the campus looks beautiful – nice pics).
Awesome pix, Jerry!
Funny, I don’t remember Fall color in Hyde Park. In retrospect it seems like it was either cold and rainy, or cold and cold. (I remember we teased one First Year from San Francisco that his mustache would free. One day he walked into the dinning hall and exclaimed that his mustache had frozen!) It’s amazing how gray sandstone (and sand) can be without sun. In the Summer, though, it was gorgeous.
Jerry, was the Burning Bush talking to you? 🙂
Because you quoted Ezra Pound – one more:
Ancient Music
Winter is icumen in,
Lhude sing Goddamm,
Raineth drop and staineth slop,
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm.
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us,
An ague hath my ham.
Freezeth river, turneth liver,
Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, ’tis why I am, Goddamm,
So ‘gainst the winter’s balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm,
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.
Ezra Pound
Boston Ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata) and Burning Bush or Wahoo (Euonymus sp.).
I remember the University of Chicago as not being particularly special to look at from the streets, but from inside the quads it is often beautiful.
Very beautiful and well presented once again.
What a glorious place to work, you are very lucky. Autumn doesn’t amount to much in these parts, but the occasional tree or bush will look rather pretty. I must put being in the US in Autumn on my bucket list.
Lovely selection of several ivy-oids on the walls.
I finally persuaded the wife to let me put some Virginia creeper on the walls, and after a couple of years it got settled in, spread round a corner to get a good grip, and was taking off. So the wife made us move.
Got the new one started within 6 months of moving in. Hope it’s going to take off more quickly.