Oakland: Yellow and Green in Fall, but Red?

We know Oakland sports yellow and green in August, as those are the colors of the town’s baseball team, the Athletics, but red?

Color spotter Darrell Sano took an eight-mile hike “from downtown Oakland to the foothills of my neighborhood, Montclair. While I wouldn’t say it’s fall color time here, there is a tinge of color on many trees and shrubs, and it feels like autumn for sure.”

The photos Darrell sent are startling, as the trees are showing quite a bit of early color for a part of California that is often among the last to peak.

Of course, all of the showy deciduous trees in Oakland are exotics (Japanese maple, Chinese pistache, sycamore, liquidambar), so there’s no telling what clock they’re on.

Darrell said he would have missed the color had he been driving. Instead, he encourages “walking and meandering’ your hometown, like “hiking in the Sierra.”

What is remarkable, is that Darrell noted, “The light quality has changed, adding warmth to everything, as well as increasing backlit contrast.” He “used a very short 18-55mm telephoto lens” which mean he had to walk up to the color and observe it in order to fully appreciate the early display within Oakland’s neighborhoods.

He reported that nearly turned sycamore line Trestle Glen in Oakland, and that “some leaf raking has already begun!”

His pictures show spots of fluorescent red among the Chinese pistache, with the forbidden color (red-green) – so called because it is not perceptible to the color-blind – emerging with florid edges on the pistache bleeding into the green.  

Oakland homes laden with Boston ivy are also warming up, with about half turned red, so far.

Remarkable, and it’s not yet September! Ånd, aren’t Oakland’s September colors supposed to be yellow and green? 

Just Starting (0-10%) – Oakland