It too will soon be nothing but bare sticks waiting for the spring. The blue gum trees, a non-native relative of the eucalyptus that is planted along streets throughout the city, turns several colors in succession. At the moment the trees are a mix of green, yellow and dark burgundy red. They do provide a splash of color this time of year, but they are incredibly messy plants. In the Spring they drop all sorts of small buds and pollen.
Summer brings spiky round seed pods filled with thousands of tiny seeds.
Once the seeds are dispersed, the pods themselves fall. This time of year the leaves begin to drop and their fairly large size and thickness cause them to mat down quite easily. I am lucky in the fact that I have plenty of these trees to look at in my neighborhood, but don't have to cleanup after them. Up in the mountains One of the prettiest fall colors is the turning of the cottonwoods, which grow natively in higher elevations and are sometimes planted here in the valley. A local wildlife area, only a mile away, has a large collection along a stream.