Why do leaves fall in autumn?
By JOE LAMP’L / DIY Network Published Tuesday, October 7, 2008 Wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy those brilliant colors of autumn leaves all year rather than just for a few short weeks? Maybe so, but the changing colors each fall is part of an important and complicated process that ends in the leaves’ being shed at the end of each growing season. The actual term used to describe this process is known as abscission. Although some parts of trees, like stems and buds, can handle freezing temperatures, most leaves cannot. In order to protect themselves, trees and plants purge diseased, damaged or dead tissue (namely leaves), while simultaneously sealing the point where the leaf petiole connects to it. Known as the abscission layer, this layer consists of cells that can separate from each other based on certain physiological occurrences. As the changing climate and light conditions of autumn evolve, tree hormones change, too. The most notable is auxin. It is produced in the leaves and body of tr
