autumn in the Schönbuch forest 2020-10-19

Sycamore maple (Acer pseudoplatanus)

treetop detail frog perspective I frog perspective II sycamore maple leaf
Acer pseudoplatanus forest

Acer pseudoplatanus seeds

The edge of the Schönbuch forest near Walddorf is also in its full colours:

„yellow wall“ at the edge of the Schönbuch forest
Colourful edge of the Schönbuch forest along the Fuchswasenweg near Walddorf. The yellow and red tones are from lime trees (Tilia spec.) and wild cherries. Oaks, common hornbeams and goat willows are also present, but mainly still green.

Red Oak (Quercus rubra, Oct 20th)

frog perspective branches detail in the foreground
red oaks

red oak foliage

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foggy Schönbuch forest 2020-10-10

– or: When I went to photograph the sunset and returned with pictures of fog. For the second time. Like on September 1^st when it rained much of the day, cooling down the air, the clouds disappeared by evening with blue sky arriving from West. Sounds like good ingredients for a nice sunset, which shouldn´t have happended as expected, but instead the Schönbuch forest was covered in fog:

foggy

„wildfire“
Rising fog glowing in the last sunrays over the Schönbuch forest.

foggy Schönbuch forest

The fog had the perfect density and altitude to be clearly visible yet not blocking the view of the distinct levels in the landscape. The few clouds at the horizon let enough light pass to create sunset colors as a nice contrast to the foggy forest. Depending on the direction of view, the color of the sky varied from blue over violet to red tones.

foggy forest

foggy forest

foggy Schönbuch forest

foggy forest in the evening

foggy forest at dusk

spring in and around the Schönbuch forest 2020-04-15

The forest turns green—while the beeches are about to open their buds or just have opened them in the previous days, birches already have their leaves; wild cherries are in full bloom and—especially in the evenings—spread their sweet fragrance, and so do most of the fruit trees around the forest; rapeseed fields have also started to flower—that´s how to briefly summarize the current progress of spring here.

Here I want to share a couple of impressions of a late afternoon cycling tour through the southeastern part of the Schönbuch forest. Let´s start with another set of images of the tracks through the light-flooded spring forest:

forest tracks photographed with 50 mm (5D)

flowering wild cherries

flowering wild cherry tree

flowering wild cherry tree

flowering wild cherry trees in the spring forest

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spring — new leaves green the Schönbuch forest 2018-04-17

In mid April, trees in the Schönbuch forest open their buds and quickly cover the forest in new green leaves. These pictures were taken in a time span of approx. 2 weeks (April 11^th–27^th, 2018).

Note: Some pictures were taken similarly at the same place on different days - in that case, you can select the different days on the buttons beneath the images by hovering the cursor.

11 April

The beeches buds are still closed yet noticeably growing in their size:

European beech full of buds

Flowering hornbeams add some tender green to the branches:

[11th Apr] 17th Apr 25th Apr
hornbeams and oaks

beech (Fagus sylvatica) foliage from last year in the morning light

beech (Fagus sylvatica) foliage from last year in the morning light

beech (Fagus sylvatica) foliage from last year in the morning light

budding beeches (Fagus sylvatica)

17 April

6 days later - the beechs´ buds are opening:

11th Apr [17th Apr]
sprouting leaves of Fagus sylvatica (European beech)

Var 1 var 2
new leaves of Fagus sylvatica (European beech)

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Leucojum vernum and Daphne mezereum on the Schwäbische Alb 2020-03-17

sea of Leucojum vernum flowers in the forest

Leucojum vernum (spring snowflake)

stump with fungus, moss, and lichen

Daphne mezereum

Daphne mezereum

flowering Daphne mezereum

Daphne mezereum

lichen

Leucojum vernum and Sarcoscypha coccinea (scarlet elf cup)

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