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- A mountain in Eastern China offers a spectacular view as the fall rolls in.
- As the season turns, the Xiezi mountain in Jinan, China, becomes split along its ridge.
- On one side of the mountain, smoke trees turn a brilliant red, while pine trees on the other stay green.
A stunning video shows a mountain in Eastern China that is split by the fall along its ridgeline every year as colder weather turns leaves on one side of the mountain orange, while trees on the other side remain green.
Cotinus trees, also called smoke trees, grow on one side of the Xiezi mountain in Jinan city, Shandong province, China.
-NowThis (@nowthisnews) November 1, 2021
These trees, a close relative of Sumac trees, turn a brilliant orange-red in the autumn, offering a striking contrast to the pine trees growing on the other side of the ridge.
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It is not immediately clear why the tree coverage on the mountain is so strikingly split along the ridge, but some have offered their own hypotheses.
"Based on satellite imagery from the last 35 years, it would appear that it was cleared for agricultural use prior to that, but has not been used for farming for at least 18 years, giving time for the [smoke trees] to grow," according to AccuWeather Senior Weather Editor Jesse Ferrell.
A view of the urbanization around the mountain over time can be seen below. The mountain can be seen in the centre of the image, just above the large segment of forest.
One travel blogger said in 2018 that all the pine trees that had been planted on the south side of the mountain were killed by drought, according to local people.
Drought-tolerant smoke trees were later planted on the south side of the mountain, the blogger said.