Fall color alert! Plants on the high plateaus of the park have started to shift to their autumnal outfits. 🍂🍁 You may have heard that mitochondria are the powerhouses of cells, but in plant cells, it takes both chloroplasts and mitochondria to keep the lights on. Chloroplasts convert energy from light into chemical energy, or food, that plants use to live. But wait, what does that have to do with fall colors? Inside every plant there are chloroplasts. Inside every chloroplast are pigments that absorb and reflect different colors of light. The most common pigment in chloroplasts is chlorophyll, which reflects green light while absorbing red and blue light. This is why plants appear green, especially in their leaves! But as temperatures change and daytime gets shorter, chlorophyll starts to break down. As chlorophyll breaks down, the color reflected by other pigments shows through! Yellow and orange shades are caused by carotenoids, which are the same pigment that give carrots their color. As chlorophylls break down and photosynthesis slows, the extra sugar in plants causes the production of another shade of pigment, called anthocyanin. This appears red to deep purple. What’s your favorite fall color? #FallColors