Year of the Tree

It’s hard to get excited about trees during summer. That expansive blanket of green leaves covering the landscape is proof that the natural processes of photosynthesis are chugging along, but for many folks there’s no “wow” factor when they gaze upon the various shades of green.

Mother Nature is about to change the blankets. The practical summertime greens are getting replaced with the vibrant mosaic of reds, yellows, oranges and purples of autumn. It’s the time of year people schedule vacations to the mountains of western North Carolina. It’s Leaf Peeper Season.

The color change everyone hopes for is a product of several factors. Deciduous trees like oaks, maples, beeches and sweet gums contain the yellow pigments in their leaves through the spring and summer, but it is only during fall, when the green chlorophyll breaks down as the trees prepare to go dormant, that the yellow is revealed. For some types of trees, the yellow then turns to red as those pigments are last to be synthesized by the leaves before they drop or turn brown.

By combination of these few colors; green, yellow, red and brown, the rest of the spectrum of fall foliage can exist as orange and purple, in varying shades and vibrance.

Weather also plays a roll in how bright or drab a particular fall might be, with temperature and moisture playing significant rolls.

During the late summer and early fall, a stretch of warm, sunny days in conjunction with cool, but not freezing nights allow for a lot of sugars to be produced in the leaves which in turn convert into the beautiful reds that make for a colorful autumn palette.

The amount of rainfall also has an influence. A warm, wet spring in combination with normal summertime temperatures and precipitation, capped off by warm, sunny days and cool nights in the fall typically result in memorable Leaf Peeper seasons. Late springs and summer droughts tend to mute the colors of fall.

That being said, we should be in for a colorful fall around Lake James with peak colors around the end of October. Make sure to schedule some time outside to enjoy the show.