Its colors
golden yellow, golden bronze
When it turns here
first color about Sep 23, 2026, at its best Oct 6, 2026, fading by Oct 13, 2026, bare by Oct 19, 2026 (estimate).
this year, by the model, the forest here peaks about Oct 7, 2026.
Model of Oct 27, 2026.
How long it holds
the sources give no figure for how long it holds its color.
Where it grows thickest
The oak and hickory forests of the south of the region, from southern Maine and southern Quebec and Ontario southward.
upland slopes, often south-facing
its range outline comes to this page
By height
No northeastern figure in the Silvics chapter.
From the road
Bark breaking into long plates that curl away from the trunk, a shaggy look readable at a distance, under golden crowns of five-leaflet leaves.
Its pictures this autumn
Where to see it
pictures of it this autumn from …
- Concord, Lexington & the Middlesex woods, MA · 1 picture, newest Oct 4, 2026
The sources’ own words
hickories (yellow-gold)
Oaks turn red, brown, or russet; hickories show golden bronze; aspen and yellow-poplar, golden yellow; dogwood, purplish red; beech, light tan; and sourwood and black tupelo, crimson.
Shagbark hickory (figs. 1,2) is found throughout most of the Eastern United States from southeastern Nebraska and southeastern Minnesota through southern Ontario and southern Quebec to southern Maine, southward to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and eastern Texas, and disjunctly in the mountains of northeastern Mexico.
At first smooth and gray, later broken into long, wide plates attached at the middle, curving away from the trunk resulting in a coarsely shaggy appearance.