Why Plants Change Colors
Plants change colors due to the amount and location of different pigments in plant cells. The most common color in plants is green, caused by a pigment called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is essential for photosynthesis, a process where plants convert sunlight into energy. During spring and summer, when sunlight is abundant, plants produce a lot of chlorophyll, making the leaves appear green . However, as the season changes to autumn, temperatures drop, and days get shorter, trees receive less direct sunlight. This causes the chlorophyll in the leaves to break down. The decrease in chlorophyll reveals yellow and orange pigments that were already present in the leaves but were masked by the dominant green color during the warmer months. Darker red leaves are the result of a chemical change. Sugars that get trapped in the leaves produce new pigments called anthocyanins. These pigments were not part of the leaf during the growing season. Some trees, like oaks and dogwoods, are lik...