Trees take water from the ground through their roots & take carbon dioxide from the air. They also use the energy from sunlight to produce sugar which together is called photosynthesis.
Because of its wide verity of trees, the Eastern United States, especially the North Eastern U.S., is one of the best places in the world for viewing fall colors.
Bright red & purple colors come from anthocyanin (an-thuh-'si-uh-nuhn) pigments, like in maple leaves, are formed from trapped glucose.
Brown colors come from a waste product called tannin, orange colors comes from carotene ('kar-uh-teen) & the yellows from xanthophyll ('zan-thuh-fil)
The leave colors red, yellow & brown are in the leaves all year long & only become exposed when the green chlorophyll disappears in the fall.
Mulching fall leaves where they fall lets them decompose so that they can release their minerals back to the underlying soil.
Maples, Oaks, Elms, Birch & Ash trees are just a few of the trees that give spectacular colors during the Autumn season.
Fall colors are best when late summer is dry & autumn has bright sunny days & cool nights below 40 °F.
Fall days become shorter & many plants stop making food. That is when the green chlorophyll starts to disappear from the leaves.
Most leaves fall from trees because the ends of the branch are sealed off near the leaf stem to protect the tree through the long winter months.
Composting fall leaves is an excellent way to improve yard & garden soils. Mixing green & brown materials together is the basic rule.
An acre of trees can grow 4,000 pounds of wood in a year, using 5,880 pounds of carbon dioxide & giving off 4,280 pounds of oxygen in the process.
