What Causes the Different Colors of Leaves in Autumn?

Imagine the leaf is like a little artist who uses different colors to paint itself. During summer, it mainly paints with green because of chlorophyll, which helps it eat sunlight. But as days get shorter and cooler in autumn, the leaf stops using chlorophyll, and other hidden colors, like orange and red, start showing up! That’s why we see beautiful fall leaves.

Take the quiz →

Examples

  1. A leaf like a green crayon fading into yellow as it gets cooler
  2. A tree turning red, just like when you put sugar on your apple slices
  3. Leaves going from green to gold like a sunny day turning into sunset

Ask a question

See also

Discussion

Recent activity