With the nights drawing in along with wetter, windier and cooler weather recently, you may have noticed it’s starting to feel like autumn.
One of the more spectacular parts of the new season arriving is the leaves turning into a colourful display.
Forestry England experts think this autumn will be even more dramatic than usual.
“We’ve had a very warm and sunny summer, and that helps trees build up the sugars in their leaves that create those amazing autumn colours…and we’re expecting a really beautiful display this year,” said Andrew Smith, Director of Forestry England’s Westonbirt, The National Arboretum.
Gradually the lower light levels into autumn reduces the production of the green pigment – chlorophyll – and the underlying colours of yellow, red and orange come through.
But with a record-breaking warm summer and sunshine amounts above average, trees produced more sugars in their leaves.
And with higher sugar concentrations, a pigment called anthocyanin is produced, making the leaves even redder.
Forestry England suggests that “if we continue to experience warm days and cool, dry nights in September, we could see one of the most flamboyant autumn displays in recent years”.
However, as Kevin Martin, Head of Tree Collections at Kew Gardens points out “we may not see the spectacular display when all trees change colour at once, as some trees have already changed and shed their leaves”.
Known as a ‘false autumn’ – the leaves on some trees such as horse chestnut have already turned brown and dropped in response to the stress of drought.
Although in response to the recent rainfall, some of these trees at Kew Gardens have started to regrow temporarily before the regular autumn change comes.
