Some of the best displays of autumn colors are seen each year in Lodi’s older neighborhoods. We enjoy mild winters, but as summer ends the days get shorter and shorter. This is how the trees “know” to begin getting ready for winter.
During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves. As the bright green fades away, we begin to see yellow and orange colors. Small amounts of these colors have been in the leaves all along. We just can’t see them in the summer, because they are covered up by the green chlorophyll.
The bright reds and purples we see in leaves are made mostly in the fall. In some trees, like maples, glucose is trapped in the leaves after photosynthesis stops. Sunlight and the cool nights of autumn cause the leaves to turn this glucose into a red color. The brown color of trees like oaks is made from wastes left in the leaves. It is the combination of all these things that make the beautiful fall foliage colors we enjoy each year.
Click here for more neighborhood photographs taken on November 26th, 2012.
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Thank you Keith for making our Lodi streets look good. Tree Lodi would like all our streets to look as good. We will continue to work with the City of Lodi to keep our Tree City USA title.
Posted by Gordon Schmierer Sr | November 27, 2012, 9:49 pm