When the Green Fades: The Hidden Colors of Autumn

Every autumn, trees seem to perform a kind of magic trick. The green of summer gradually disappears, and forests, neighborhoods, parks, and streets fill with gold, yellow, orange, red, and purple. But those colors are not appearing out of nowhere. Many of them have been there all along, hidden beneath the dominant green of chlorophyll. As days shorten and temperatures cool, trees begin preparing for winter. One of the most visible signs of that prepa-ration is the gradual dismantling of the machinery that keeps leaves green. What we see as autumn color is, in part, the unveiling of pigments that have been present in leaves for months.

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