Autumn Colors
From Green to Red
Autumn is my favorite time of the year in no small part to the beautiful
foliage. There are many legends about why the leaves change their
colors. In one, a bird having saught saftey against the winter was
turned away by various trees until it found refuge in a pine, and the
creator learning of the trees' behavior allowed the pine to keep it's
needles while the other trees lost their leaves. The science behind
fall's foliage may not be as fantastic, but it's still interesting. As
night length increases in the autumn, chlorophyll production slows down
and then stops and eventually all the chlorophyll is destroyed. The
carotenoids and anthocyanin that are present in the leaf are then
unmasked and show their colors.
Learn more on Wikipedia