Friday, October 9, 2020
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Fall Gardening
If you haven’t noticed already, Laurelle is a bit of a Plant Geek! A shameless one at that. She is a certified Horticulturist and possesses a wide range of knowledge when it comes to plants, soil, landscaping design techniques and much more!
Today Laurelle is sharing her shameless fun facts when it comes to why leaves change to a spectacular array of colours in the Fall season. In Fall, deciduous trees and shrubs stop producing chlorophyll in their leaves. In the Fall, with shortening day light hours and cooler temperatures, deciduous trees signal and end to producing chlorophyll in their leaves in preparation for leaf drop. Chlorophyll is a natural chemical compound present in the cells of leaves that let the tree energy from the sun, combined with water and carbon dioxide to produce starches and sugars.
“We get our carbs from pie, trees get theirs from the sunlight!”
The green masks underlying pigments in the leaves that have been there all along. When the green disappears, you’ll see the spectacular colours from the other pigments that were present all along in the cells such as anthocyanin (produces pink and red shades) and carotenoids (produces yellow and orange shades). Fun fact, carotenoids are the same natural chemical pigment that gives carrots and pumpkins their beautiful orange colour.
Take a walk outside and enjoy some of these beautiful colours. It’s truly a breath taking time of year and take time to enjoy the background science behind Mother Nature’s beautiful Fall display.