Where Do Leaves Get Their Autumn Colors?

These photos were taken recently while crossing the bridge that leads to the Aquarium in Niagara Falls, New York.

If you live in one of those parts of the world where Nature has one last fling before settling down into winter's sleep consider yourself lucky. In those wondrous places, as days shorten and temperatures become crisp, the quiet green palette of summer foliage is transformed into the vivid autumn palette of reds, orange, gold, and brown before the leaves fall off the trees. On special years, the colors are truly breathtaking.

Evergreens-pines, spruces, cedars, firs, are able to survive winter because they have toughened up. Their needle or scale like foliage is covered with a heavy wax coating and the fluid inside their cells contains substances that resist freezing. Thus the foliage of evergreens can safely withstand all but the severest winter conditions, such as those in the Arctic. Evergreen needles survive for some years but eventually fall because of old age.

I lived for several years in the New England states and now I am in Western New York. Every autumn I have been able to revel in the beauty of the fall colors. The mixture of red, purple, orange and yellow is the result of chemical processes that take place in the tree as the seasons change from summer to winter.

During spring and summer the leaves have served as factories where most of the foods necessary for the tree's growth are manufactured. This food-making process takes place in the leaf in numerous cells containing chlorophyll, which gives the leaf its green color. This extraordinary chemical absorbs from sunlight the energy that is used in transforming carbon dioxide and water to carbohydrates, such as sugars and starch.

Certain colors of leaves are characteristic of particular species of trees.

-Oaks turn red, brown, or russet.

-Hickories turn golden bronze.

-Beech turns light tan.

-Red maple turns brilliant scarlet.

-Sugar maple turns orange-red.

-Black maple turns glowing yellow.

-Aspen, birch, and yellow poplar turn golden yellow.

Leaf color is most spectacular when the right combination of factors is present. Scientists don't fully understand all of the complicated interactions that cause the best display of leaf color, but they do know that leaf pigments, length of night, the type of tree, genetic variation, and the weather all play a role.

Where Do Leaves Get Their Autumn Colors?

Tree and plant leaves contain pigments that give them their color. Three pigments are involved in fall color:

· Chlorophyll — gives leaves their green color.

· Carotenoids — provide the yellow, orange, and brown colors

· Anthocyanins — give the red and purple colors.

In contrast to the other two pigments, anthocyanins are produced in the autumn, in response to bright light and excess plant sugars in the leaf cells.

During the growing season, most tree leaves are green because they are full of chlorophyll that enables them to manufacture their own food. As the days grow shorter in the fall, chlorophyll production slows down and eventually stops. The carotenoids and anthocyanins that are present in the leaf then become visible.

Fallen leaves are not wasted; they decompose and restock the soil with nutrients. The rich layer of decomposing leaves protects the roots of other plants on the forest floor and absorbs and holds rainfall. Imitating nature by mulching with shredded leaves provides similar benefits for trees and shrubs in the home landscape.

Today the temperature was in the 60's - very unusual for this time of year. I spent time working in the Peace Garden while enjoying the sunshine and the beautiful foliage and thought I would share it with you today.

photos by peacesojourner

'The Spirit of the Wind' - International Kite Festival

Cliffs of Bournemouth, South West Coast of England

‘Across the Ocean on the Spirit of the Wind’

I believe that we should connect with our inner child, especially when the memories are happy.

Recently I read that the Niagara International Kite Festival was coming to town for four days, I was instantly transported back to memories of the home-made kites that we flew as young children.

I was born and raised in London, England, and during the summers the children in our family went to the seaside to stay with our Great Aunts who ran a small hotel located in Bournemouth, on the Southern Coast of England. We were extremely adventurous and I remember running on the cliff tops and down the zig zag paths with our homemade kites constructed of old newspapers, flimsy balls of tied together string and a piece of wood.
Over the years I have always owned a kite, nothing elaborate, even now I have one that is collapsible and can be stored in a small pouch. This is kept in my bedroom top dresser drawer next to my other items of extreme value.

Driving north on the Seaway Trail alongside the Niagara River, I wondered what awaited me. None of my friends had found the idea of a kite festival as interesting as I did. As I rounded the corner, hundreds of multi-colored kites flew in the breeze. I joined the crowds. Here were my people—fellow kite lovers, kindred spirits.

At the festival, children from 4 to 94 turned their heads to the skies watching brightly colored kites that looked like graceful mythical birds soaring above and the sky was alive with magic.

This year’s festival theme was “The Spirit of the Wind.” Every year, kite flyers from around the world converge on the mighty Niagara Falls to reenact the following historical event. In 1845, railroad engineers envisioned a bridge spanning the turbulent gorge. Until that time, the only way to cross was to go downstream and take a choppy ride in a small ferry. 
They chose the narrowest point of the gorge, immediately above the Whirlpool Rapids, as the site to connect the United States and Canada.

Local engineers offered a cash prize to the first boy who could fly his kite to the opposite bank. There was a tremendous turn out for the kite-flying contest which took place in January of 1848. It was designed to secure a line across the Niagara gorge to facilitate the building of the area's first suspension bridge. Despite many obstacles, 10-year-old Homan Walsh successfully flew the first line across the gorge. He won $10, an impressive sum of money at that time.

Eight months later, a somewhat primitive bridge at 762 feet long and 8 feet wide opened to the public. Seven years later, using the bridge span as a scaffold, a railroad suspension bridge across the Niagara River was completed. All because of a ten-year-old boy and his kite! Every year professional kite flyers from around the globe participate in this unique event by creating a kite arch connecting the U.S.A. and Canada.

From its origins in Asia thousands of years ago, the sport of kite-flying has spread all over the world.

The colorful kite festival participants, visiting from many different countries, are true international peace ambassadors for the world.

Whether you are flying your kite while across the ocean on the cliff tops in Bournemouth, England or at the raging water’s edge of Niagara Falls you will be following in a tradition of thousands of years, running alongside other kindred spirits with the Spirit of the Wind. Connecting with your inner child.

*****

I am the author of this article which was printed in the Buffalo News in November 2008.

I would like to invite you to consider attending the Annual International Kite Festival in Niagara Falls, New York. The dates this year are September 23 - 27, 2009.

This is a free event and will provide lots of fun for adults and children alike.