As daylight keeps getting shorter and temperatures start to slip, trees take the hint and begin preparations for winter.
They send their sap down from the upper reaches through the trunk and into the roots. They stop producing chlorophyll for their leaves (nature’s solar panels) in anticipation of shedding them for the season. What remains of this green pigment vital to photosynthesis, begins to break down. The fall colors that appear were there all along, waiting for a couple of weeks of limelight before the final seasonal curtain call.
