Why Do Leaves Change Colors?

It’s that time of year. The air gets chillier. The leaves get ready to fall. Trees begin to show their colors. Have you ever wondered why they change colors? It turns out that the colors were there all along. Each color is a kind of pigment (color molecules) we call chlorophyll. We are just used to only seeing the Green kind.

There are basically two kinds of trees. Those that keep their leaves all the time (coniferous trees) like pines and firs that have modified leaves called needles. There are also some regular leaf trees that keep their leaves all year. They live in tropical climates like the Amazon. Our broad leaf trees in the US usually go dormant in the winter and drop all their leaves. These trees are called deciduous trees.

When trees are growing during the summer, most of the chlorophyll that the trees use to make sugars (and oxygen for us) are the green kind. The reds, oranges, and yellows also help; we just can’t see them. When the tree starts to go dormant in the fall and the leaves start to die, the green chlorophyll is the first to fade. The other colors are longer lasting and so they are the ones we see. They may keep their colors for weeks, but eventually even they will lose their color and the leaf will shrivel and turn brown.

You can keep them longer by pressing them. All you need is some thin, absorbent paper and a book. Place the leaf between two sheets of paper and place the book on top of the “leaf sandwich”. If you put a thin piece of cardboard in between, you can actually do several layers of leaves. Leave them to dry. One hint, you may want to remove the book for several minutes every day to help them dry out. Otherwise they could get moldy.

Here’s a video that shows you how.

I hoped you enjoyed our talk about fall colors!

Love Papaw.It’s that time of year. The air gets chillier. The leaves get ready to fall. Trees begin to show their colors. Have you ever wondered why they change colors? It turns out that the colors were there all along. Each color is a kind of pigment (color molecules) we call chlorophyll. We are just used to only seeing the Green kind.

There are basically two kinds of trees. Those that keep their leaves all the time (coniferous trees) like pines and firs that have modified leaves called needles. There are also some regular leaf trees that keep their leaves all year. They live in tropical climates like the Amazon. Our broad leaf trees in the US usually go dormant in the winter and drop all their leaves. These trees are called deciduous trees.

When trees are growing during the summer, most of the chlorophyll that the trees use to make sugars (and oxygen for us) are the green kind. The reds, oranges, and yellows also help; we just can’t see them. When the tree starts to go dormant in the fall and the leaves start to die, the green chlorophyll is the first to fade. The other colors are longer lasting and so they are the ones we see. They may keep their colors for weeks, but eventually even they will lose their color and the leaf will shrivel and turn brown.

You can keep them longer by pressing them. All you need is some thin, absorbent paper and a book. Place the leaf between two sheets of paper and place the book on top of the “leaf sandwich”. If you put a thin piece of cardboard in between, you can actually do several layers of leaves. Leave them to dry. One hint, you may want to remove the book for several minutes every day to help them dry out. Otherwise they could get moldy.

Here’s a video that shows you how.

I hoped you enjoyed our talk about fall colors!

Love Papaw.