There is no shortage of oak/hickory forests and riparian woodlands in my area, but there's one forest that's unique here. It's a place called Maple Woods, not far north of downtown Kansas City, and consists of a series of steep ridges and creek valleys covered in giant oaks and mature stands of sugar maple. Maple Woods is known for wildflowers and migratory songbirds in the spring, and for its brilliant foliage in the autumn. Sugar maples are rare this far west, so every October I go up there to experience a palette of fall color I'd ordinarily have to drive hundreds of miles to see. The following photos were taken during two hikes through the area, which is  administered by the Missouri Department of Conservation. MDC says of the site: "This old-growth forest is a National Natural Landmark and contains impressive black maple (a variety of sugar maple), northern red, white and bur oaks; bitternut and shagbark hickory, red elm, basswood, black walnut, and white ash."

View from outside the woods, showing red oak, maples, sycamore and others.

Once in the woods, the light is a wonderful, dappled green/gold. 

Some fungi, though I'm not enough of a mycologist to say what kind.

Paw paw leaves. This is an understory species, a close relative of tropical fruit trees such as the cherimoya.

 Some of the maples turn a fiery reddish orange.

Others turn a lambent yellow.

Drupes of Eastern wahoo, also known as spindletree or strawberry-bush. This is a wild relative of the euonymus commonly used as an ornamental shrub in people's yards.

A clearing in the woods. There is more sunlight here, so smaller trees such as redbud, persimmon, rough dogwood and juniper take over from the hardwoods.

Fluffy seeds in the clearing.

Looking up a sumac stem.

Trunk of a honey locust. I've seen locust thorns nearly twenty inches long; they evolved this defense against mammoths and other megafauna that used to roam around here.

A persimmon. My grandma used to make delicious persimmon cookies, but if you eat one before it's ripe it is unbelievably bitter.

A young whitetail buck. Some cretin killed this beautiful animal with a razor-point arrow then left it to rot.

A fallen maple. There's not much light on the forest floor here, so when a large tree like this one falls, it gives younger trees and shrubs a chance to grow.

Red berries, though what kind I couldn't say.

Oak against maple.

Leaves floating in a forest stream.

all images © 2010 by nanatehay