Hi , can anyone tell me what tree or plant this is? Thank you

That is velvetleaf - a very bad non-native noxious weed.

My understanding is good fall color is tied to dry weather with sunny days and cold nights. Lots of rain is bad for color, and at least here, it has been a cloudy rainy Oct.

Might have something to do with awful wet and cold spring too.

Ryse, down here a dry and hot August was rough on trees already suffering from last year's miserable record setting heat and drought. That is why our fall is only ok.

Up there, is there a chance you are already seeing the loss of fraxinus family ash trees to the Emerald Ash Borer invasion? Our white and green ash are a big part of fall. I was looking at some ten to twenty footers planted in rows at some businesses thinking they all must be the EXACT same cultivar because they are the exact same purple with a tinge of yellow. Then I thought I should find out what idiot created the mono culture with EAB on the way.

Sorry. Ran myself into a rant lol.

Our fall color stinks right now too. We've been really warm this fall so far, in fact they are calling for 70 degrees Friday. The lowest temp at our house so far has been 31.1, our Vincas are still alive even! On top of that, we've had long dry periods followed punctuated by 2+ inch rainfalls. A very, very odd end of season so far. We are getting some nice color on our Red Maple but on the whole, things are either green or brown.

We had a spotty start - some great pockets, but other trees looking poor. The later color is coming on nicely the last few days, though. Most of the Acer rubrums lining our woodland edges are turning FAST with their reds, oranges, and some yellows.

The 'Red Sunset' Red maples around town will peak this week, and the 'October Glory' trees probably next week, both look to have nice color this year, although "pinker" than usual.

In fact, most of our reds this year have a lot of pink in them for some reason.

Overall, better than last fall but not near as good as 2010 or 2011 was.

The sugar maples are average - some trending more yellow than usual, yet others more reddish, it's weird. A small percentage are dropping leaves right as they start turning, though.

The red maples are late, but look to be nice.

Blackgums were STUNNING & are mostly done now.

Liriodendrons started off nice, but then dropped before really peaking in color. The hickories are the deepest golden I've ever seen.

The white oaks seem to be having a "red" year, from the few that have really started turning yet.

The red oaks (incl the Scarlets, unfortunately) appear to mostly be duds, but a few are starting to look nice. Some sort of scorch or blight mostly defoliated about half the red oaks about 2 months ago. The Scarlet I drive by every day is still solid green, which bodes well, since last year it turned in mid November but was a DEEP SCARLET and gorgeous. The green means no scorch, so that should be good.

Many of the oak seedlings and saplings in the woods are the richest red-purple I've ever seen this year, though.

The Liquidambars look above average.

We had a WET, WET late spring and early summer, then NO RAIN AT ALL to speak of until Sept, when we had a 1" soaker, then another 1", then 6" the second week of October. Been dryish again since then, but the ground is still moist since it has been cool.

We've had a freeze already, last Sat AM we were in the upper 20s to low 30s. Cold enough that some of the invasive Paulownias have singed leaf tips & many annuals got zapped. My annuals are OK but most are in a sheltered area.

I'm surprised NW Illinois doesn't usually have good fall color, wonder why that is?

Fall color here in Nevada has not been as good as the last few years. Aspens in the mountains were mostly absent of anything other than yellow... some years, including the last few there has been some brilliant orange and red mixed in, but not really this year. Lots of browning. In the towns, where on a good year the dominant Cottonwoods and Siberian Elms turn a decent yellow, many have just turned brown and fallen off.

The Aspen issue may be related to the unusually wet September we had, while the failure of color in town is probably due to the warm September quickly transitioning to a cold October with many nights well down into the 20s.

I saw a Quercus prinus (I'm 90% sure, might be a Swamp White but the bark is more Chestnut Oak) on the way to work this morning that was a nice yellow, almost as good as you'd see on a Hickory.

Last year was great, this year pretty blah and sporadic. Been warm and dry and didn't see frost until last week. While some are done (with little color) others are finally starting to turn.

tj