LIMA — Scrap your weekend plans to install storm windows, pick up fallen apples, or head to the store for Halloween candy shopping. This is the weekend to get out and view Ohio’s rural and wooded landscape in all its fall finery. Near peak and peak fall color conditions are in effect in most of the state, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
“There has been a huge amount of color change around the state in the past week triggered by the cooler, more seasonal temperatures,” noted Ohio Fall Color Forecaster Casey Burdick on ODNR’s website. “You don’t have to go far to find nice fall color.”
Limaland residents are in luck. Northern and central portions of the state are at near peak and peak conditions this weekend, at places like Indian Lake State Park in Indian Lake, Harrison Lake State Park in Fayette, west of Toledo, and Buck Creek State Park in Springfield, according to Burdick.
“Our leaves have been slow to turn, but in recent days, it seems as if someone threw a switch,” said Donna Grube, director of the Greater Grand Lake Region Visitors Center. “It’s really pretty around the lake. The lake reflects the color and you get a double view.”
There are great places to enjoy fall color in the city parks of Lima, too.
“Probably my favorite is our new park, Hermon Woodlands, on state Route 81 and Wapak Road,” said Dan Hodges, a naturalist with the Johnny Appleseed Metropolitan Park District. “We just opened it in May. It’s got a lot of maple trees in its understory.”
Members of the Acer genus of trees and shrubs include sugar maple and red maple, which turn a flaming orange or brilliant red color in the fall. They provide the “wow factor” in an autumn landscape. McLean Teddy Bear Park, on North Dixie Highway, site of the parks district’s annual maple syrup festival, also has a lot of sugar maples, noted Hodges. These parks, and Kendrick Woods, Allen County’s largest contiguous woodlot, have hiking trails. Hodges said Hermon Woodlands also allows dogs.
A recent visit to McLean Teddy Bear Park found maples in various stages of transformation, with some a striking combination of green leaves near their centers and orange-red leaves at their edges. Stately shagbark hickories and lacy black walnuts glowed a bright yellow in the deepening dusk.
The color change is triggered by cooling temperatures and fewer hours of daylight. When a certain threshold is reached and the nights are long enough, the cells near the place where a leaf joins a stem form a corky layer of cells called an abscission layer. It blocks the flow of sap to the leaf and inhibits the production of chlorophyll, the green pigment that converts sunshine into carbohydrates, or energy, for the tree. Without a constant resupply of chlorophyll, the plant’s green tint fades and its true colors are revealed.
For serious leaf-peeping, consider heading south for a getaway in parts of Ohio that escaped the glacial scouring that gave our part of the state its flat, rich farmland. One hundred miles south, the little town of Yellow Springs boasts several parks and preserves like Glen Helen, Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, a National Natural Landmark, and John Bryan State Park.
There’s no reason to stay indoors. So go ahead, set aside that Honey Do list and go for a drive, a walk, an overnight romantic getaway. The chores can wait. Mother Nature’s annual fall spectacular won’t.
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