Scenes of Vermont Forums

What is the science reason for the lack of red in this season's foliage? Was it all related to the tropical storm that went up the east coast or were there other factors?

Northern part of the state has more maple (red color). They turned early this year. Rainstorm knocked down all their leafs. Southern part of the state survived the heavy rain (leafs turned late), but most of the tree there are not maples (yellow color). That's my guess.

Leaves contain three substances.

• Chlorophyll, which gives leaves their basic green color. It is necessary for photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that enables plants to use sunlight to manufacture sugars for their food.
• Carotenoids, which produce yellow, orange, and brown colors.
• Anthocyanins, produce reds. They are water soluble and appear in the watery liquid of leaf cells.

When shorter days produce less sunlight, Chlorophyll production stops leaving the Carotenoids and Anthocyanins which we are responsible for the color we see during foliage season.

Maples differ by species-red maple turns brilliant scarlet; sugar maple, orange-red; and black maple, yellow. The color of the leaves vary from year to year based on a number of factors such as the amount of moisture in the ground and temperatures which encourage or discourage sugar production in the leaves.

Maples covering the mountainsides are what draw people to Vermont during foliage season. They are everywhere. There will be more red colors where there are red maples, oranges where there are sugar maples and yellows where there are black maples. Often sugar maples have a combination of greens, yellows and oranges.

Hope this explanation answered your question.

Al

We had about a month with very little rain from August to early September and the red maples did turn early. Then we had a strong storm that blew off a lot of leaves. A lot of the sugar maples turned yellow instead of their normal orange. The dry spell might have affected them. Right now we have had about 3 inches of rain in the lowlands and a foot of snow in the mountains, I picked up a cold and am turning purple.

shyu, normally, I would agree with you. Normal "progression" of color change should be North to South and High elevations to Low. The former just didn't hold true this year. Al's explanation -- that it simply varies by a number of conditions is probably the better explanation -- at least this year.

What is really unusual -- I was in the far southern part of the state for 3 days. All the leaves were down there on the maples. Locals explanation was that they had a rather dry late summer -- not the rain that was experienced in some of the Northern portions. When the "hurricane" effects hit NE, it essentially took any vulnerable leaves down.

What I found "wierd" was that it seemed to hold on further North and in some cases, in higher elevations, longer. Also, the entire Western face of the Green Mountain range seemed to be the best foliage this year. Much of that is the "Lake Champlain" influence, keeping things warmer and greener longer and giving nature more time to allow the changes before wind an rain ripped the leaves off.

Based on what I am seeing in the weather up there this weekend, I am betting that's no longer an issue

I hate to say this in a VT foliage forum but we are just coming into peak here in Northern CT and the "hills" are bursting with reds and oranges like I've not seen here recently. We survived the rain and wind and the leaves are gorgeous!

It is a beautiful autumnal day here with those blue azure skies, white puffy clouds and breezy. I've decided to ditch my afternoon chores and winterizing agenda and am heading out to savor the foliage here! Fall fever continues!!!! So much for my list of things to do!

Tomorrow will be touring the NW corner of CT! Come on down!

If you are curious about my poor English - you need to pardon me because I am still learning it. After this year's visit to Southern Vermont, I must say I am still overwhelmed by the powerful autumn scenery and enjoyed thoroughly the hospitality of the local people when I talked to them or asked directions. I hope I can come back to see what I missed - Northern part of Vermont in the future.

LOL, shyu. Your "poor" English is way better than some of the folks who were born and raised here

shyu; you discribed exactly what happened to the foliage this year. All we oldtimers did was add a few details. A few more years of leafpeeping and you will be adding details like us oldtimers.