GURL, sometimes to grow you gotta let some thangs go. That’s the quote for tha crisp autumn season, DAHLING ... let go of those yellowing leaves so that new growth can come shining through 🍃🍂🍁 And now for a lil plant nerd moment, cuz she’s just that GURL: Since childhood the Fall foliage realness is one of nature’s beauties that I’ve always enjoyed witnessing ... tree leaves from a hearty green to shades of reds, oranges and yellows. Later I would learn that shedding leaves helps trees to conserve water and energy, ultimately helping them survive the brutal winters. As the days shorten and the frigid weather approaches, deciduous trees including ash, aspen, beech, birch, cherry, elm, hickory, hornbeam, maple, oak, poplar and willow just to name a few put on a a lovely display of that Fall foliage fierceness. Hormones in the trees trigger the process of abscission where the leaves are actively cut-off of the tree by specialized cells. At the start of this process, the trees reabsorb valuable nutrients from their leaves and store them for later use in their roots. Two categories of compounds produce the bright colors of fall: carotenoids and flavonoids. Plants use these molecules to assist chlorophyll in the absorption of light and to help protect the chlorophyll from solar radiation damage. Carotenoids can also act as antioxidants, which help protect energy-producing structures in plant cells. Common carotenoids found in leaves include lutein and beta-carotene. The yellows are attributed to a class of carotenoids called xanthophylls and two types of flavonoids called flavonol and flavone. The orange can come from the carotenoid beta-carotene, which strongly absorbs green and blue light and reflects red and yellow. This allows our eyes to perceive the orange color. Violaxanthin is another carotenoid responsible for orange coloration of leaves. Animation by @loops.w 💛