Here in the eastern U. S., fall brings with it leaves of all colors. Some years are better than others. In an off year, the leaves are blown or battered off the trees before they fully change, or simply turn brown and drop. In a good year, the hillsides are a splashy palette of colors with an almost electric glow. This year looks average to poor in my location, but given the recent rains we’ve had, I’m happy to get out and see the leaves at all. The time and extent of the overall leaf change depends upon three basic weather conditions, according to the Foliage Network: temperature, precipitation, and wind. The color a leaf turns depends–as you may recall from elementary-school science–on the pigments found in its particular variety of tree. As the hours of daylight decrease, the tree slows down chlorophyll production, and loses the green that masked the colors of the other pigments.

For those of you who want to delve deeper into the leaf-change process, the Botany Photo of the Day blog has, along with the titular photo, a succinct but interesting post on why there is so much variation in the color of maple leaves. There’s also a tangential explanation of botanical classification, which may be of interest to those of you who read my post on Biological Classification and Folksonomies. (Thanks to Boing Boing for the sighting.)

The Foliage Network also has foliage reports and information on planning trips to view foliage.