On a recent walk down my driveway, I noticed that portions of the leaves on my yellow-poplar had turned black and were wilted. My first thought was this was herbicide damage from my recent foliar spraying of invasive shrubs in an adjacent woodland area. However, I was hesitant to believe this since I was careful with the application and wasn't especially close to the impacted tree. Further along my walk, I began to see additional species impacted by a similar type of damage.
The extent of this, along with a closer look at the symptoms, made me realize that herbicide damage was not the issue, but rather the low temperatures and frost that occurred a few days prior were likely to blame. The Virginia Creeper shown in this photo was heavily impacted along the entirety of the vine that stretched upwards of 30 feet above ground.
Notice on this catalpa that the leaves that were most recently formed were the ones impacted by the frost and not the larger, slightly older leaves. Many times, the newest growth of a plant is the most likely to suffer negative effects from the cold.
The ash pictured above illustrates the same type of wilting as the catalpa, with newer leaves being more heavily impacted by the frost. Leaves turning black and curling are a common symptom of frost damage.
The new growth of black walnut was heavily impacted by the frost. This was especially evident when observing the canopies of the larger trees (picture not shown).
Of all the plants that I found frost damage on, perhaps the most heavily impacted was wild grape, with new and old leaves alike shriveled.
Notice the northern red oak shown in this photo only displays some slight drooping of the leaves. I fully anticipate that these leaves will fully recover and will not show any symptoms in the near future.
Like most things in nature, what one disturbance, like frost, will heavily impact some species and have little to no effect upon another. Even the newest, most tender leaves of this black cherry seemed unfazed by the recent cold. While from an individual tree's perspective, the frost was damaging, I do not anticipate any long-term impacts from this disturbance. It is important to remember that tree species growing in this area have faced the same disturbances in the past and will once again in the future.
