Autumn Colors: Winged Sumac, Bayberry, etc.

Blackberry leaves in fall.

     Ochre, crimson, merlot, claret, honey-brown, and cinnamon-orange are the island’s colors of autumn. New England – even southern New England – is known for its dramatic fall foliage colors. The mainland hardwood forests burst into flames of color: the reds, yellows, and everything in between, seem to glow and radiate color from within. Leaf-peeping excursions are standard fall activities throughout New England.

     On Block Island, September and October visitors generally are coming for bird watching (its own sort of colorful activity) and fishing. Splashes and sprays of vegetative color around the island is not expected. But, it is here. Autumn colors on the Island are more subtle than on the mainland, but they are every bit as beautiful; perhaps more beautiful, as they are anunderstated, complex matrix of shades that don’t scream “look at me!”

     Because our landscape is predominantly grasslands, meadows and coastal shrubs it has a relatively low stature (no towering trees barraging us with color), foliage colors appear splayed out like an artist’s blotchy palette.

     Because of the ubiquitousness of winterberry and Asiatic bittersweet, their vibrant red, orange, and yellow may be the only fall foliage that you see and recognize.

     However, when you shift from seeing to looking the colors get more difficult to define. The large round leaves of common greenbriar are drying, curling and vining through the brush in various shades of yellow and ochre. Blackberry leaves are also curling on the vine and cascading in hues of merlot. Crimson is the color of Virginia creeper. This native vine with the five-part leaf is particularly stunning as it runs along grayed tree limbs and stonewalls. Another native vine, (leaves of three) poison ivy, is also showing off in colors ranging from dull orange, to salmon, to purple.

     On to the shrubs. The toothed edged arrowwood (Viburnum) leaves change color slowly. Most are now multicolored: green and maroon.

    And finally we’ve come to the small shrub that seems to be everywhere this year. Winged sumac – a brilliant claret color – is showing up in many newly cut fields as short, densely packed plants; a few years older, this sumac takes the form of a shrub, which can be found along trails and roads. Winged sumac (a.k.a. shining sumac, flameleaf sumac, wing-rib sumac, to name a few) is a beautiful, native, yet aggressive plant. The female plant produces gorgeous berry clusters that feed birds and other wildlife including humans, and it is an important plant for bees and other pollinators. In the same way that we sometimes have eruptions of birds (will it be a snowy owl eruption year?) we appear to be having an eruption year for winged sumac.

     The autumn plant outlier are bayberry shrubs. Well-berried for the first time in many years, these clumps of waxy, blue-tinted gray berries can be a rest for our foliage bedazzled eyes. Somehow these bayberry clusters are sending a message of reassurance: although down-and-out last year they are back this year. Of course, this is the pattern of all wildlife: there are lean years and years of abundance. Fall of 2025 is a year of winged sumac and bayberry.

Asiatic bittersweet, an invasive vine

Common Greenbriar, a native vine.

Virginia Creeper, a native vine.

Poison Ivy, a native vine.

Winged Sumac, an aggressive native small shrub.

Winged Sumac. Notice the "wings" along the rib of the leaf.

Bayberry, a native shrub with waxy berries that can be eaten by Tree Swallows and Myrtle Warblers.

Winterberry, a native shrub and member of the holly family.

Arrowwood, a native Viburnum large shrub. Winged Sumac changing color.