Copper and Gold

The beech trees that heavily populate the North Shore of the Vineyard are showing spectacular foliage this year; their coppery gold canopies refract the late afternoon light which fades all too quickly during the shortened days of late autumn.

A deciduous native to North America, the American beech is a shade-loving species, and because of this it is often the last to grow in a succession forest. With its hard, tough wood, the beech tree was also left largely uncut until the advent of the chain saw — as a result there are still many old beech trees left to enjoy.

And with their great gray trunks and burnished leaves that hang onto limbs long after other trees have shed their foliage, they are indeed enjoyable.