“Some trees, as small hickories, appear to have dropped their leaves instantaneously, as a soldier grounds arms at a signal; and those of the hickory, being bright yellow still, though withered, reflect a blaze of light from the ground where they lie. Down they have come on all sids, at the first earnest touh of autumn’s wand, making a sound like rain.”  – Henry David Thoreau, “Autumnal Tints”

These yellow leaves carpet my front half-acre. Oklahoma’s native hickories are tall, beautiful trees, standing among the oaks and ashes of the hillside forests that we call The Crosstimbers.