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Autumn foliage is a phenomenon that changes the typical green leaves of predominancy of deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on, throughout several weeks in the autumn period, many shades of brown, purple, red, orange, and yellow.
The changing color of autumn foliage is the most straightforward chemistry lesson. Chlorophyll causes leaves to be green, and as nights become longer and temperatures decrease, chlorophyll generation reduces to a stop.
Chlorophyll isn’t the alone player in the autumn leaf-color game. Some tree species begin to produce other pigments: beta-carotene, anthocyanin, flavonols. When the seasons start to change, the production of Chlorophyll slows to a halt. That is what changes forests yellow, oranges and red. The infographic below created by Andy Brunning shows the chemistry of these pigments.
Colors you see during autumn also depend on the species of tree.
The color of maples leaves varies species by species.
Maple species
Color
Black maple
Glowing yellow
Red maple
Brilliant scarlet
Sugar maple
Orange-red
Striped maple
Almost colorless
Lauren Tierney and Joe Fox mapped autumn foliage colors across the U.S. for The Washington Post, which colorfully illustrates the distribution of various forest types across the United States.
By the end of October, variations of yellow, orange, red, and brown dominate, showing the coming of peak fall foliage in the western and northern United States. When it comes to the end of November, all except the southern counties of the U.S. are past the peak point. Fall foliage prediction maps on the Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s website vividly illustrate how the color of the leaves changes in the fall across the United States.
Want to learn more about the tree U.S. diversity? The read:
