Happy ‘Leaf Day.’ Well, that’s what I call it, at least. This day is always special in a quiet way in this community. It is the moment — an explosion of mysterious beauty — when all the Norway maples in Syracuse (at least in my end of the city this morning, near Elmwood Park) burst into leaf at once in a stunning wave of fluorescent green. It is aching and extraordinary. And it never lasts for long. To me, these days are as memorable and worth celebrating in their own springtime way as when the leaves shift into the burning colors of autumn. They are particularly moving in Syracuse, snowiest large city in the nation this winter (as in many winters) with 143.1 total inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service — meaning we just spent many months of getting up each day to face a blanket of snow cover, and to look up at thousands of city trees with grim, bare limbs. What a delight this morning, then, to take the puppy for a walk in Elmwood and to see those maple leaves in the absolute first brilliant stage of coming out — an eruption sped up a little this year by warmer April temperatures in which the average high has been 62.6 degrees, according to National Weather Service meteorologist Kaitlyn Lardeo. She said that is about 6.2 degrees above the daily April average high, for Syracuse. A Norway bursts into leaf, Elmwood Park. Credit: Sean Kirst | Central Current Don Leopold of the SUNY College of Environmental and Forestry, a distinguished teaching professor, plant biologist and — bottom line — the great tree scholar of Syracuse, makes this note about the Norway maples, going to leaf: “There’s no green like it,” he said, describing that brilliant mesh of yellow, green and gold. He expects all the maples — including sugar maples, red maples and silver maples — will be in lush full leaf by the end of April. Yet he offered the point about the right-now beauty of the Norways grudgingly, because — to put it mildly — he is not a fan. They are “highly invasive,” Leopold said, noting the one good thing about the fierce derecho that hammered Syracuse on Labor Day 1998 was that it wiped out a whole lot of Norways, which he estimates at that time accounted for maybe a quarter of all the trees along our city streets. Norway maples come to leaf on ‘Leaf Day’ in Syracuse. Credit: Sean Kirst | Central Current The storm, he said, allowed the city to extensively replant, using more regionally appropriate trees that he sees as far more suitable and beautiful for this community. Still, he agrees the Norways contribute powerfully to this moment in time, when — if you drive along a rural highway in Central New York — you might observe dozens of distinct and memorable greens in the canopy of any forest, a beautiful payback for the long, harsh winter. “Nothing has its color,” Leopold said of the Norway maple, though he said the voracious nature of the tree takes away much of his joy when he sees it surging into leaf. “Sometimes,” Leopold said, “I regret knowing what I know,” meaning the way knowledge can sometimes undermine perceptions of beauty, a reality going back to Eden. I appreciate that point, though on Leaf Day I also try to step back, reflect upon that long winter and simply say: What a green. The post Sean Kirst: That stunning fluorescent green? It’s ‘Leaf Day’ in many Syracuse neighborhoods appeared first on Central Current. ...read more read less