Fall Foliage Colors

Fall foliage colors can be found anywhere you find deciduous trees or shrubs. Fall foliage can be seen throughout the woodlands all the way to the mountains and from small or large cities to the rural countryside. After the long hot days of summer we all enjoy the cool days and beautiful colors of fall. As we watch the trees transform from green to the brilliant colors of yellows, oranges, and reds we are assured that fall has arrived and winter will be upon us sooner than we think.

The leaves on some of the trees will always turn yellow but never red such as the Tulip Poplars, Redbuds, Birches, and Hickorys. The leaves of a few other trees including Dogwood, Sugar Maple, Sourwood, Sweet Gum, and Black Gum will usually turn red but sometimes yellow during the fall. Maple trees, for example, come in a number of different varieties and each one will have its own distinctive collection of colors in the fall. The Hedge Maple will turn gold or yellow just as the Japanese Maple can be turning yellow, bright orange, red, or sometimes purple. The Crimson King Maple, as its name suggests, will develop into a luxurious reddish-orange exhibit of color. A common Sugar Maple has beautiful foliage that can be orange and yellow in its autumn colors.

When all the fall colors are richly on display, the birch tree will also show lovely leaves. Most of the varieties of birch including the European White Birch, European Hornbeam, and the Paperback Birch with produce beautiful yellow leaves in the fall. A Kousa Dogwood will always be eye-catching during the fall with leaves that range from purple-red to a scarlet color. The American Beech along with the European Beech will have leaves in bronze, yellow or somewhat brown in color. There are many people that prefer to enjoy the deep reds that can be found on the Black Gum or Sour Gum trees.

In many of the mountain regions, Aspen trees will splash the slopes with streaks of astonishing yellows or golds. The contrast that occurs between the brilliant yellows and deep greens of evergreen trees make beautiful scenes for photographing or painting. The regal Oak tree has an intense range of colors in the fall. The Eastern Oak, English Oak, Pin Oak, Red Oak, and Scarlet Oak will definitely spring into action every fall. The colors of these Oaks range from a red to a scarlet and a brown to a bronze. The Red Oak can even have yellow leaves.

All the bright colors of our fall foliage pictures are actually a byproduct of a chemical change as the trees begin to go into a dormant state. These beautiful colors really do not have a marked significance or biological duty. The change in the length of the day actually causes chemical changes in the trees that lead to the bright color changes starting with the longest day of the year in June. This is when the sun begins to move south and the days start becoming shorter.

The leaves have the same amount of yellow pigment in summer when they are green as in fall when they turn yellow. During the summer the green pigment, which is darker, will mask the yellow color. The evergreen trees may shed some of their older leaves, which will often times turn yellow, in spring instead of the fall. The evergreen tree will never drop all of its leaves at one time therefore giving us those bright greens all year long. The bright sunlight is very important for producing the red pigment in many of the fall leaves: if you covered part of a leaf with a dark cover before turning red the section that was under the cover will most likely turn yellow while the rest of the leaf has turned red.  

To enjoy the fall foliage coming from the deciduous trees you can choose just about any area of the United States and there is usually an opportunity to view many fall colors on a vast array of trees. The many forests and scenic byways of our beautiful country give us the chance to view many fall foliage colors during a road trip or a rail trip.