A Voice from the Eastern Door
A Voice from the Eastern Door
The leaves on deciduous trees are made up of cells filled with water. As autumn approaches and daylight time decreases, a layer at the base of the leaf stem, called a separation layer forms. The leaf’s ability to carry sap in and out of the leaves stops. If this process did not happen, the leaves would freeze possibly killing the tree. This process separates the attached leaves from the branches and they fall. The oak tree is one deciduous tree where this process does not fully take place. The oak tree leaves never fully detach from the tree, so many of the leaves remain on the tree throughout the winter.
Evergreen trees, except for the Tamarack larch, do not lose their leaves because they are covered with a heavy wax coating that protects the cells substances from freezing. As the years go by and the tree grows, evergreen leaves are replaced by new growth.
As Mother Earth makes her 365-day journey around Elder Brother Sun, Some parts of Mother Earth get fewer hours of sunlight. In these areas the days become shorter and the nights grow longer. The temperatures begin to drop. The trees respond to the decrease in sunlight by starting the process mentioned above, and they also produce less chlorophyll that makes up the green color in the leaves. When the tree stops producing chlorophyll, the colors in the leaves finally show through. The leaves become a glorious rainbow of glowing colors.
Leaf colors come from natural substances produced by leaf cells called, pigments. The three pigments responsible for the color of leaves are: chlorophyll (green), carotenoid (yellow, orange, and brown), and anthrocyanins (red). Chlorophyll is the most important of the three pigments because without chlorophyll in the leaves, the tree would not be able to use sunlight to produce food. Carotenoids are also responsible for the yellow and orange colors in carrots, corn, and bananas to name a few of the many. Anthrocyanins add the red color to cherries, apples, strawberries, cranberries, and many others. Not all trees make anthrocyanins.
There are leaves of many beautiful colors. We can see spectacular yellows, oranges, reds, and different shades of warm browns. The yellow, orange and gold leaf colors are created by the caratenoid present in the leaves. The red leaves are caused by anthocyanins that are formed in some trees, like sugar maples, as the sugar sap is prevented from flowing through the leaves in response to cool nights. Researchers have found that anthocyanins are produced by the tree as a form of protection.
In the daytime, the trees whose leaves turn red, produce a lot of sugar. As the nights cool and prevent the sugar sap from flowing through the leaf veins and into the branches, anthrocyanin is produced to allow the tree to recover nutrients before the leaves fall to the ground. It is this anthrocyanin that gives leaves their brilliant shades of red, crimson, and purple. When a number of warm sunny days without freezing nights occurs, it will be a good year for reds. Cloud cover and the temperatures can also make a huge difference in the red colors from year to year. The yellows and oranges are always a constant fall happening. They are only affected by a killer frost.
The autumn show of colors is also affected by the weather. The amount of rain or lack of it can delay the arrival of the fall colors. If it is very wet and warm, the brightness of autumn colors is lowered. An early severe frost will kill the leaves, turn them brown, and they will drop early. The best of autumn colors happens when there has been a warm, wet spring, a summer that was not too hot or dry, and a fall with a lot of cool nights and warm sunny days.
Perhaps you can take a nature walk or ride around Akwesasne. The following list of trees and their fall colors will help you along with leaf shape, bark texture and color, and fruits, to identify the different tree species. Oak leaf colors are: red, brown, or russet. Birch leaf colors are: bright yellow. Hickory leaf colors are: golden bronze. Dogwood leaves are: purple red. Poplar leaves are: golden yellow. Maple tree leaves can show a range of colors. Sugar maple leaves: orange-red. Black maple leaves: glowing yellow. Red maple leaves: bright scarlet. It is interesting to note that in nature, nothing goes to waste. The fallen leaves provide many duties. The leaves are broken down by fungi, bacteria, earthworms, and other organisms. These decomposed leaves fill the soil with needed nutrients. The leaves also form a spongy humus layer on the ground that absorbs and hold rainfall. This is especially important in our forests.
Fall leaves are fun to collect while taking a walk on a beautiful sunny fall day, and there are interesting craft projects you can do with them. My favorite item is below.
Making an indoor autumn leaf wreath out of recyclables is a fun and easy task. This is a great kid’s project. Step (1) - take a wire coat hanger and bend to shape it into a circle - the hanger top part stays as is to hang it later. Step (2) collect 14 to 16 empty toilet paper rolls - or a few empty paper towel rolls enough to cut 14 or 16 TP size rolls. Step (3) take each cardboard roll and slice it halfway through. Step (4) place these on the hanger circle. Step (5) tape the TP rolls together on the sliced side. Step (6) the real fun part - either use the link below to print out leaf shapes and trace the leaves on autumn colored construction paper OR use real collected leaves and place them bumpy side up under a piece of white paper and then rub them with the side of an unwrapped crayon. Cut them out to use on the wreath. These rubbings look great. Making leaf rubbings is great group project. Step (7) take your leaf shapes and glue them to the top side of the TP wreath. Your wreath is ready to hang!
Leaf shapes to print:
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