"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower". - Albert Camus.
I so love autumn and I am going to miss this season when I move out of Japan. I love the different colors of autumn leaves. The changing color of the leaves never fail to delight me.
Beautiful Autumn in Rokko Island
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| This is my jogging place - the Greenbelt jogging trail, so beautiful during autumn. |
The colorful leaves (koyo in Japanese) are to the autumn what cherry blossoms are to spring.
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Why do Fall leaves change color?
As summer ends and autumn comes, the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees "know" when to begin getting ready for winter.
During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can't see them in the summer because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.
The bright reds and purples we see in the leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves. It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful fall foliage colors we enjoy each year.
(Source: www.sciencemadesimple.com)
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