Autumn arrived this week in Philadelphia. And with the cooler weather came blustery winds blowing yellowing leaves from city trees. The yellows and reds of trees beneath blue skies makes for some great photography. But what is really going on? Thankfully, the Washington Post published an article exploring where and why the leaves change colour (or don’t).
The star of the piece is the large map of the United States that shows the dominant colours of forests.
Little illustrations and annotations dot the map showing how particular trees (whose leaf shapes are shown) turn particular colours. The text in the piece elaborates on that and explains what is going on with pigments in the leaves. It adds to that how weather can impact the colour change.
Later on in the piece, a select set of photos for specific locations show at a more micro-level, how and where leaf colours change.
Overall, a solid piece for those of you who enjoy leaf peeping to read before this weekend.
Credit for the piece goes to Lauren Tierney and Joe Fox.
