What makes autumn leaves more colorful?
 

I was just in the northwoods of Wisconsin, and barely any trees have turned...but southeast in Wausau, where DD lives, there's a lot more color.
What are nature's rules for brilliant colored leaves in autumn? Anybody know?

I just heard about this on TV on the weekend!
If I can remember what they said...

It involves the length of the daylight, the the night temperatures, and the timing of the sap pulling back into the main part of the trees.

so it a combo of these things and also rainfall too that creates the set up for the leaves to change colors.

If the combo & timing is perfect then brilliant colors will be seen but if one or more is off then less chances of wonderful colors.

Thanks for the web site, Kitt! It was chock-full of info...I'll be looking for those trees listed in the next couple of weeks...:)

Hi Deb,

I took a class in arboriculture about 15 years ago and I recall the teacher saying that when the trees have more stress, they produce brighter and more intense colors. So if there is a long dry spell or heavy rains or intense heat, etc... it should bring out more colors in the leaves in the fall. I should read at that site too, I love trees. I have certain favorites and have planted many of them in our yard. Some of them I had success with, others not as much because we used to have poor clay soil.

thanks for the information. The leaves don't seem that colorful by me this year. Now I know what some of the reasons why they're not could be.

befuddled

We have the most intense color this fall too.

All summer it has been very cool, and we have had more rain than usual.

In fact now that Halloween is over, I'll put up two photos for November in my Avatar and siggie. I'll do that on our main computer in the morning downstairs.

Not only trees and bushes seem more colorful this season,
but my wild geranium plants have turned the deepest scarlet ever. People have commented on that while walking past this season, too.