Beautiful scenery at Kennekuk County Park . Photo by Jennifer Bailey
highs in the upper 60s to 70s , and then cool temperatures at night that don ’ t drop below freezing , that ’ s when you ’ re going to get the best fall colors . Because those warm sunny days the trees are still going to be busy and active . But then when they get those cool temperatures overnight , it starts that process of the sugars going down into the roots for storage . And it ’ s a slow , gradual process which allows our leaf colors to pop ,” she said .
Oranges and yellows in fall leaf colors might be a little more dominant in this area . But there ’ s basically four colors in a leaf .
The colors of oranges , yellows and greens are in leaves year-round . There are also reds .
When leaves first start to come out in the spring , they can be deep orange and a little bit of reddish color . The green hasn ’ t started being produced . The green color in a leaf is the chlorophyll , Danzl said . Chlorophyll is the green pigment for helping trees and plants turn sunlight into sugar used for food , through photosynthesis .
“ So , underneath all that green chlorophyll you still have all oranges and yellows hiding in the leaf . You just can ’ t see them because the chlorophyll is so dominant ,” she said .
When the day lengths are getting shorter , it ’ s a signal to the chlorophyll and it starts to break down and allows the oranges and yellows to pop through .
The reds are produced when the chlorophyll breaks down and there are warm sunny days , and the tree has to have excess sugars .
“ It just has to be perfect weather conditions to get a lot of beautiful
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