Fall Color

Fall, my second favorite season after spring. Only second because it leads to winter. I love winter in December and even January, but after that...yuck. Fall though; colorful trees, good smells, apple picking, soccer and football season, all great stuff. It is looking to be a pretty fall too. If I recall correctly, last year was a bit drab. Why the differences in fall color from year to year?

There are many factors that go into the changing of the leaves every year. Chlorophyll, the green substance in plants where photosynthesis happens, stops being produced in the fall because there isn't enough sunlight or water in the winter for this miraculous process to continue. When the green starts to disappear, other colors are left according to the pigments already in the leaves but not visible when all that green is there. There are yellows and oranges (carotenoids) as well as browns (which actually come partially from wastes like tannin) in the leaves. Color is also affected by the amount of sugar in the leaves (then you see reds and purples from anthocyanins).

A series of warm, sunny days, followed by cool but not freezing nights like we have had this year seems to stimualte more reds and purples (because there is more sugar made during the day that gets trapped in the leaves), which in turn gives us a more brilliant fall. The oranges and yellows don't vary all that much from year to year because they are the result of pigments that are already there, just not revealed until chorophyll stops being produced.

Looks like we are at just over 50% peak, so get out and enjoy fall in the Northeast since we are lucky enough to be blessed with the beauty of the season, and this year is particularly beautiful!