menagerie of yellows, oranges, and reds. These colors seem to decorate the landscape around Arkansas and remind Arkansans that the chills of winter are approaching. The key to this transformation is chlorophyll, or, rather, the lack of chlorophyll in leaves.
As you may remember from fifth grade life science, chlorophyll is the green pigment in leaves that enables trees to produce food,
using light from the sun. As summer’s warmth departs and night becomes longer, the production of chlorophyll gradually slows down until it stops. This accounts for the absence of leave’s green color.
Chlorophyll, which usually masks the pigments Carotenoid and Anthocyanin, is absent, enabling these pigments to show their true colors. Carotenoid accounts for the yellows, oranges, and browns, while Anthocyanin has red and blue tints.
However, as Robert Frosts’ poem states, “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” The trees eventually shed their leaves, for a leaf without chlorophyll
is like an empty file cabinet: its useless and it takes up space. So ends the life of a leaf, once green and now golden. It’s final journey will take it from your yard to the trash can. Happy raking!
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