Why leaves change color in the fall.
If you’re renting one of our North Georgia Cabins this fall, you’re in for a real treat. The leaves are beginning to turn already and it’s going to be a beautiful year for foliage. We get asked all the time by our cabin renters, “What makes the leaves actually change color?” Well, here’s why leaves change color in the fall.
The leaves are the tree’s food factories. Plants take water from the earth through their root system and their pull carbon dioxide from the air. Plants use sunlight and chlorophyll ( the substance that makes leaves appear green) to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen (a byproduct) and glucose ( a sugar that trees burn for energy). The way plants turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar is called photosynthesis. That literally means “putting together with light.”
As summer is coming to an end and autumn is coming around the corner, we all know the unfortunate fact that the days get shorter. This shortening of sunlight along with the dropping temperatures cause the trees to begin getting ready for winter.
During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees simply rest, and exist off the saved food they stored during the summer. They completely turn off their food-making mechanisms. At this point, the green chlorophyll is no longer being created in the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we start to see yellow and orange colors. It’s not that the leaves are necessarily TURNING orange and yellow, these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can’t see the darker colors in the summer, because they are covered up by the much more dominant green chlorophyll. This makes the cabin getaways up in North Georgia so beautiful during the fall.
The beautiful reds, browns, and purples we see in leaves are created mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples for instance, some glucose is still trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Limited sunlight and the more brisk temperatures of autumn cause the leaves turn this glucose into a red color. This is why a sever cold snap in the fall always triggers the color change. The darker brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves.
These colors are so beautiful this year. We hope as many people as possible get a chance to see them from our beautiful cabins in North Ga.
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