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Leaf Senescence & Abscission
University Outreach Publication
Autumn Tree Leaf Color Series
Spring flower colors are raised in fall to crown the trees. Many of the pigments are the same but the colored containers have changed from dainty petals to coarse, broad leaves. It is living leaves that reveal in their decline and fall last summer’s results and next spring’s promise. The living process in a tree generating autumn colors is called senescence.
Senescence is the pre-planned and orderly dismantling of light gathering structures and machinery inside a leaf. Part of senescence is the development of a structurally weak zone at the base of a leaf stock or petiole. Live cells are needed in the leaf to unmask, manufacture, and maintain the tree pigments we appreciate as autumn colors. Fall coloration is a result of this positive life process in a tree. Freezing temperatures kill leaves and stop the senescence process with only decay remaining.
07-33
Dr. Kim D. Coder
November 2007
Warnell School of Forestry & Natural Resources, University of Georgia
Athens, GA
8
WSFNR07-33
Aesthetics, Abiotic Factors, Biology (tree), Landscape Ecology, Photosynthesis, Silvics, Stress & Stressors
Southern, Southeast, Northeast, North Central, Eastern, National
color, Leaf characteristics, leaf fall, tree color
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