#Middlebury #FallFoliage #MiddleburyLandTrust
Fall colors edge Fenn Pond in this 2016 photo. Brookdale Farm (aka Fenn Farm) can be seen on the far side of the pond. (Curtiss Clark photo)
By JANINE SULLIVAN-WILEY
Autumn is officially here, having arrived Sept. 22. And soon we can celebrate our good fortune in living in Middlebury, Conn., where folks don’t have to book a room elsewhere and travel unfamiliar roads in search of spectacular fall foliage. There’s a good chance the very road you live on will be postcard worthy at some point this October.
Much of our local beauty is brought to you thanks to the acquisitions of the Middlebury Land Trust (MLT). Its mission of preserving meadows, wetlands and valuable species habitat has the lovely side effect of providing visual and leisure benefits to those who live here. Many MLT-conserved properties are open to the public year-round (see www.middleburylandtrust.org for a map and locations under “holdings.”)
But back to the beauty of autumn and those wonderful colorful leaves. This sadly brief period every year turns many trees and shrubs into a riot of color. There is always something new to discover about this process. I was surprised to find that some of the trees I thought in passing were bright sugar maples, were in fact a type of oak: the scarlet oak. Just note the leaf shape – most know the familiar maple configuration and how it differs from an oak leaf. If it’s unfamiliar to you, take a look in Google images.
The invasive burning bush is matched by blueberry bushes for color. Our native redbuds turn a fabulous golden yellow. All of those colorful trees and bushes make me feel as if I am driving or walking through a giant bouquet of flowers.
This also is the time of year when inquisitive children (and inquiring adults) want to know why and how this glorious show takes place. Tree leaves convert sunlight to energy through the use of a green pigment called chlorophyll, which is abundant in leaves. But leaves also contain colorful yellow and orange elements called carotenoids (carrots are full of them). They are outperformed by that green chlorophyll most of the year, but they get to shine when the chlorophyll shuts down for the winter.
Other chemical changes that occur at this time give rise to the pigments that provide those fiery reds and smoldering purples. Our sugar maples are colorized by a reversal of the process that gives us sugaring-off time in early spring. When we are back to warm days and cool nights, sugar is trapped in the leaves. Then the bright light forms anthocyanins that give us brilliant colors. Just like the perfect weather for sugaring off, we can hope for perfect weather that will maximize those colors (warm, bright days and cold but not quite freezing nights).
These wonderful chemical processes, our fortunate local tree and shrub profile and lovely hilly and stream-riddled geography all come together to provide our own treasured show every fall.
You must be logged in to post a comment.