Fall Colours

Autumn (or rather, 'The Fall), is a beautiful time here in the US & a lot more spectacular than back in the UK. There are certain places in the US such as Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Washington, & Minnesota, that tend to be fall colour hotspots, but even here in Missouri the colours can be amazing.

Certain leaf colours are characteristic of particular species. Oaks turn red, brown, or russet; hickories, golden bronze; aspen and yellow-poplar, golden yellow; dogwood, purplish red; beech, light tan; and sourwood and black tupelo, crimson. Maples differ species by species-red maple turns brilliant scarlet; sugar maple, orange-red; and black maple, glowing yellow. Striped maple becomes almost colorless. Leaves of some species such as the elms simply shrivel up and fall, exhibiting little color other than drab brown. Have a look at http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/fallcolr/fallcolr.html for a more detailed description of why the various colours are produced.

There are a lot of trees on the way to Mary & Tony's house. Mary commented that there is often just one day where the colour changes, sunlight, weather, etc all combine to produce a really vivid display, so Cheryl & Beth drove out so that Beth could take some photos. Since the photos were taken from the car at 55 mph, the full brilliance of the colours is somewhat lost, but the change from what seemed to be completely green foliage the week before was amazing.