Woodland Leaf Fall

Aspen  leaves on the ground on Hayes Common, 27 October 2015.

Hayes Common is mostly secondary woodland.  In Victorian times it was nearly all heath, and there was a clear view all the way from Hayes to Keston, where day trippers used to walk.  Now it is mixed deciduous woodland; mostly oaks, then beech, with a few other species such as silver birch scattered in there.

Here are some typical woodland floors.  I have already posted a Norway Maple leaf so I'll omit that.  So here, the first is under an aspen. The leaf stems are flattened along a vertical plane, which allows them to shiver in the wind.   Throughout the wood you will normally also see a few oak and beech leaves, as you can here.

Beech leaves on the ground on Hayes Common, 27 October 2015.

This is under a beech.  You can see that the leaves have not gone uniformly brown, which is not ideal for the tree as it has not managed to absorb all the goodness back into itself.

Sweet Chestnut leaves on the ground on Hayes Common, 27 October 2015.

Sweet Chestnut leaves are much larger.  In summer they make a wonderful canopy; the quality of the light that comes though is magical.  Again, some oak leaves are scattered among these.  There are so many oaks that the leaves get everywhere.

Oak leaves on the ground on Hayes Common, 27 October 2015.

And this, finally, is actually under an oak tree.  You can see lots of twiggy litter there as well as the leaves.

So, you can see that the character of the woodland floor in Autumn is very different under different types of tree.  They absorb and reflect light differently and have very different colour tones.

I didn't go out on purpose to collect these.  I was out for a walk and decided to take a few pics with my iPhone as I was on the home stretch.   Variety is everywhere!