Its colors
purple, bronze, yellow
When it turns here
first color about Sep 15, 2026, at its best Sep 22, 2026, fading by Sep 26, 2026, bare by Oct 4, 2026 (estimate).
this year, by the model, the forest here peaks about Oct 7, 2026.
Model of Oct 27, 2026.
How long it holds
Short, and shorter in warm autumns: at Harvard Forest its full display was cut short in years with warmer autumn temperatures.
Where it grows thickest
Scattered through the hardwood forests of the whole region, never dominant, often near streams and on old farmland; in Ontario more common in the south, where emerald ash borer has done the most harm.
near streams and old farmland
its range outline comes to this page
By height
Up to about 600 m (1,970 ft) in the Adirondacks.
From the road
Purple-bronze crowns among still-green maples early in the season, bark of corky ridges in diamonds, and opposite feather-like leaves; one of the first trees bare.
Its pictures this autumn
Where to see it
pictures of it this autumn from …
- Manchester, Dorset & the southern Green Mountains, VT · 1 picture, newest Oct 2, 2026
The sources’ own words
white ash (purple-red-orange)
This is a large and handsome tree of our forests, often found near streams. Its opposite compound leaves turn from yellow to purple-brown in early to mid-October.
Under average weather conditions in central New York, white ash is one of the first tree species to reach peak color in early fall; quaking aspen, Norway maple, and larches don’t reach their peak color until the last week of October or even later in central New York.
As a consequence, the duration of the full display of autumn color (d90) was reduced in years with warmer autumn temperatures.
Purple: White ash and witch hazel
A very high percentage of the trees that naturally colonized these exhausted farmlands are some of the best for fall color, e.g., sugar maple, white ash, and quaking and bigtooth aspens.
White ash (Fraxinus americana), also called Biltmore ash or Biltmore white ash, is the most common and useful native ash but is never a dominant species in the forest.
White ash is more common in the south on drier sites. Ash in Ontario has been impacted dramatically by emerald ash borer over the past few years, especially in the southwest.
Ashy gray to brown in color, with interlacing corky ridges forming obvious diamonds; older trees may be scaly.