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Autumn Leaves and Fall Foliage Why Do Leaves Fall Colors Change?
by Science Made Simple
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We all enjoy the colors of autumn leaves. The changing fall foliage never fails to surprise and delight us. Did you ever wonder how and why a fall leaf changes color? Why a maple leaf turns bright red? Where do the yellows and oranges come from? To answer those questions, we first have to understand what leaves are and what they do.
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Leaves are nature's food factories. Plants take water from the ground through their roots. They take a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. Plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and glucose. Oxygen is a gas in the air that we need to breathe. Glucose is a kind of sugar. Plants use glucose as food for energy and as a building block for growing. The way plants turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar is called photosynthesis. That means "putting together with light." A chemical called chlorophyll helps make photosynthesis happen. Chlorophyll is what gives plants their green color. As summer ends and autumn comes, 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 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.
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7/1/2012 12:08 PM
Autumn Leaves and Fall Colors - Why do autumn leaves change color?
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/leaves.html#autumn_leaves_science...
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I CAN READ WHY DO LEAVES CHANGE COLOR IN THE FALL? Plants make their own food. They take water from the ground through their roots. They take a gas called carbon dioxide from the air. They turn water and carbon dioxide into food and oxygen. Oxygen is a gas in the air that we need to breathe.
Plants make their food using sunlight and something called chlorophyll. Chlorophyll gives leaves their green color.
Winter days are short and dry. Many plants stop making food in the fall. The chlorophyll goes away. Then we can see orange and yellow colors. These colors were in the leaves all summer, but the green covered them up.
Some leaves turn red. This color is made in the fall, from food trapped in the leaves. Brown colors are also made in the fall. They come from wastes left in the leaves.
WORD SCRAMBLE How many of these words can you unscramble? (Answers follow the Projects section) trawe afle rnege ernago mutanu loscuge gnlituhs holoplryclh Answers follow Projects Section.
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Autumn Leaves and Fall Colors - Why do autumn leaves change color?
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/leaves.html#autumn_leaves_science...
FUN FACT
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Autumn Leaves and Fall Colors - Why do autumn leaves change color?
http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/leaves.html#autumn_leaves_science...
The green color in unripe bananas comes from chlorophyll, the same pigment that gives green leaves their color. As bananas ripen, the chlorophyll breaks down and disappears, revealing the yellow color which has been there all along. The yellows and oranges of autumn leaves are also revealed as their chlorophyll breaks down. Of course, other changes also occur as bananas ripen: the starches change to sugar and the flesh softens as pectin (a carbohydrate) breaks down.
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7/1/2012 12:08 PM
Autumn Leaves and Fall Colors - Why do autumn leaves change color?
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What you need: a tree with leaves that turn red in autumn aluminum foil or heavy paper and masking tape. What you do: 1. Before the leaves turn colors in the fall, find a maple tree, flowering dogwood, sweet gum, or other tree or shrub that you know will turn bright red or purple. 2. Find several leaves that receive bright sunlight, and cover part of them with foil or heavy paper and tape. 3. After the leaves have changed color, remove the covering and observe the different colors underneath. These are the colors that were in the leaf all summer. The bright reds and purples are only made in the fall, with exposure to light. Get more great science projects each month with the Science Made Simple newsletter. Click here to try it now, and get our RISK FREE guarantee!
ANSWERS TO WORD SCRAMBLE water leaf green orange autumn glucose sunlight chlorophyll
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