Today I learned that a few factors trigger the change in color that gives us fall leaves. Changes in temperature is obvious, but changes in moisture and the amount of light affect the process as well.
What was really interesting to me is that it’s not necessarily an addition of some chemical that changes the leaves from green to red, orange, and yellow, but the removal of chlorophyll. As the weather and amount of daylight changes, trees, halt the process of nutrient production via leaves and the chlorophyll that masks these brilliant fall hues disappears. This process coincides with the tree slowly shedding its leaves as they are effectively dead wood (pun intended) if they are no longer photosynthesizing.
Kat White 