Your carotenoids are showing

Now that chlorophyll production is winding down for the year, all those patient little carotenoids and tannins are getting their share of the limelight. Yellow and orange carotenoids and brown and russet tannins appear when green chlorophyll fades away. A few clear warm days and cool nights have triggered anthocyanin production, too, resulting in red leaves.

Two Pacific Northwest native plants, bigleaf maple and red osier dogwood, are especially pretty right now. How do you know a maple or a dogwood when you see it?

When I was growing up in Indiana, MADCAP HORSE helped me know when I was looking at a maple or dogwood. The phrase stands for Maple-Ash-Dogwood-CAPrifoliaceae-HORSEchestnut. (Caprifoliaceae is a plant family that includes elderberries, among others.) MADCAP HORSE trees and shrubs have opposite branching. Two leaves grow across from each other out of the same point on a stem. You can see the pattern in a tree's branches, too. Two smaller branches grow away from each other at the same point on a larger branch. Other trees have alternate branching. Only one leaf grows out of a point along the stem.

Creek Peek for Families

Right now, the hot spot for fall color along Thornton Creek is Meadowbrook Pond. Walk across the pond's long walkway to find the glowing red leaves, white berries and opposite branching of red osier dogwood. Walk around the pond to find yellow bigleaf maple. Bigleaf maple leaves can grow up to a foot across! Their leaf stalks can grow up to a foot long, too! Bring a tape measure with you. What's the biggest maple leaf you can find?

Can you find chlorophyll (green), carotenoids (yellow, orange), tannins (brown, russet) and anthocyanin (red) in your own neighborhood? Whenever you spot a colorful autumn tree, see who can shout out the name of the correct autumn pigment first.