Your Guide to Fall Colors
on the Susquehanna Greenway
Article by Susquehanna Greenway Partnership Staff
A s the dog days of summer fade and the season shifts to crisper cooler weather, the verdant greens of the Susquehanna Green- way also transform to the colorful spectrum of fall. This phenomenon makes it a wonderful time of year to explore the outdoors of our region, but why do leaves changes color in autumn anyway? Why do some keep their foliage while others shed their leaves? What makes them red, orange, or yellow? How do we know if it’s going to be a colorful year?
costly to maintain during the winter when resources are scarce. But before they drop, we see that wide spectrum of color.
Bright Red
Imagine you are a Sugar Maple deep in the forests along the re- mote sections of the West Branch Susquehanna River. If the latter part of summer was unseasonably dry, the autumn sky was clear and sunny, and the nights were a chilly 40 degrees – these weather conditions will bring out your brilliant red colors. This is all thanks to a substance known as Anthocyanin, a red pigment produced in the leaves of Sugar Maple trees.
While you’ve been unpacking those sweaters and scarves, we’ve unpacked these mysteries and more below!
Leaves: To Drop or Not to Drop?
Trees can be divided into two basic categories: deciduous and evergreen. Evergreen trees keep their leaves or needles for multi- ple years using a waxy coating to prevent the loss of water and an antifreeze to help them resist freezing temperatures. Deciduous trees, on the other hand, loose their leaves entirely each year. Since the leaves of deciduous broadleaf trees (oaks, maples, dog- woods, etc.) require more water and nutrients than the needles of evergreen trees (pine, spruce, and hemlock), they rid themselves of their costly-to-maintain foliage. As the days become shorter and temperatures drop, the deciduous trees adapt to the rigors of winter by shedding their leaves and reabsorbing the nutrients back into the tree to conserve its resources.
A tree is like a miniature economy, and the large leaves are too
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