Autumn Fire 2

by Sarah Loft

Title

Autumn Fire 2

Artist

Sarah Loft

Medium

Photograph - Photograph

Description

I took this photograph using the "pop art" option on my camera. This had the effect of turning what looked like very orange leaves (to the naked eye) into deep red ones.

Per Wikipedia: Autumn leaf color is a phenomenon that affects the normally green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on, during a few weeks in the autumn season, various shades of red, yellow, purple, black, orange, pink, magenta, blue and brown.

The phenomenon is commonly called autumn colors or autumn foliage in British English and fall colors, fall foliage or simply foliage in American English.

In some areas of Canada and the United States, "leaf peeping" tourism is a major contribution to economic activity. This tourist activity occurs between the beginning of color changes and the onset of leaf fall, usually around September and October in the Northern Hemisphere and April to May in the Southern Hemisphere.

A green leaf is green because of the presence of a pigment known as chlorophyll, which is inside an organelle called a chloroplast. When they are abundant in the leaf's cells, as they are during the growing season, the chlorophyll's green color dominates and masks out the colors of any other pigments that may be present in the leaf. Thus, the leaves of summer are characteristically green.

In late summer, as daylight hours shorten and temperatures cool, the veins that carry fluids into and out of the leaf are gradually closed off as a layer of special cork cells forms at the base of each leaf. As this cork layer develops, water and mineral intake into the leaf is reduced, slowly at first, and then more rapidly. During this time, the chlorophyll begins to decrease. Often, the veins are still green after the tissues between them have almost completely changed color.

Chlorophylls degrade into colorless tetrapyrroles known as nonfluorescent chlorophyll catabolites. As the chlorophylls degrade, the hidden pigments of yellow xanthophylls and orange beta-carotene are revealed. These pigments are present throughout the year, but the red pigments, the anthocyanins, are synthesized de novo once roughly half of chlorophyll has been degraded. The amino acids released from degradation of light harvesting complexes are stored all winter in the tree's roots, branches, stems, and trunk until next spring, when they are recycled to releaf the tree.

Note: The watermark will not appear on the print you purchase.

Featured in the Whats New group, November 2018.

Featured in the Glimpses of Autumn group, November 2018.

Featured in the 500 Views group, January 2020.

Uploaded

November 6th, 2018

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