Aspen in autumn - incredible beauty and violence of colors

Autumn brings a special mood. In nature, everything calms down and prepares to retire to winter sleep. Trees in the rays of the autumn sun look amazingly elegant. But the aspen in autumn looks more colorful than others. This species can have the most diverse color of the crown, creates an indescribably wonderful picture that nature gives to all. Walking through an autumn park or a forest where aspens and other trees grow will be just a wonderful idea. Observing the beauty of the world around you, you can get a lot of positive emotions and get a positive mood.

general characteristics

The aspen tree belongs to the family of willow, the genus of poplars. It sometimes reaches 35 m in length. A photo of an aspen in the autumn opens before the observer a bright and very harmonious tree. The bark of the trunk has a light gray or greenish hue, sometimes with brownish notes. In the evening, the appearance of aspen in autumn can be confused with birch. This is due to the effect of the "glow" of its cortex.

But there are differences. The color of the aspen leaves in autumn and the coloring of the trunk may be somewhat similar to birch, but the represented tree is much more powerful. Its bark is smooth to the touch.

The description of the aspen in autumn is also very similar to poplar. After all, this is her closest relative. True, aspen has a leaf wavy and rough, and its breeze is long and flattened at the base. Thanks to this feature, the crown trembles from every breath of the wind.

Where it grows

To make a photo of an aspen in the autumn in the forest, you should know where it can be found. She likes to grow in the gully, near water bodies, on the fringes. Often it can be found in the neighborhood with birches and pine trees. Aspen in autumn next to such satellites looks very bright. The whole bouquet of colors and retell difficult.

The tree of such a variety grows practically on all types of soils and rapidly grows. Quite often you can meet their vast colonies. This is made possible by the powerful, well developed root system of the tree.

To capture in memory or using a camera, what an aspen looks like in autumn, you should go to the forest and find one of these colonies. Here, the riot of colors make you admire the fantasy of nature.

In the aspen tree in autumn it is possible to find many varieties of mushrooms. So the walk, in addition to aesthetic pleasure, can bring and quite material benefits.

How the Aspen lives

Doing a walk in the autumn through the forest or park, you can make a lot of breathtaking photos of aspen beauty. The life span of this tree is comparable to the human. Rarely did aspen live more than 90 years. Very rarely there are individuals who have lived up to 150 years. But for a long time the tree can live in its generations.

In spring, the aspen is covered with flowers. In the summer it is green. But autumn makes the tree especially charming. This is a completely different aspen. The leaves in autumn are painted in a variety of colors. The variety of colors is impressive.

Decorative qualities of aspen, especially in the autumn period, it is difficult to overestimate. If the day turns out to be sunny, all these colorful leaves will flash with bright light.

Leaves

This effect is unique in its beauty brightness is achieved due to the color of the leaves. Photo of the aspen in the autumn, presented below, eloquently testifies to this. Each leaf has a rounded or rhombic-rounded appearance. Sometimes the width is longer than the length.

Edge wavy, with dull teeth. The long breeze is thin and flexible. You can even tie it with a knot. It flattened at the base. In pied and radical leaves, the length is quite large and can reach 15 cm. If they are young, they may not have a pronounced fluffiness. But with age they become naked.

Color change

When contemplating the forest, observer deserves special attention aspen. Leaves in the autumn in the same species can be of different shades. It depends on the chemical processes taking place in them.

In summer, chlorophyll predominates in the leaf. Therefore, in all trees the crown is green. With the advent of autumn, chlorophyll is replaced by carotenoids or anthocyanins.

Substitution occurs when the nutrients in the leaf are depleted. The sun's rays are less and less stimulating the synthesis of chlorophyll. With a decrease in the stocks of nutritious elements of the leaf, other pigments appear, which used to be in it, but did not appear openly. Green chlorophyll before this suppressed them. When it disappears, the hidden colors and shades protrude outward and play in the full glory of their diversity.

Therefore, the color of the aspen leaves in the autumn shines with its bright colors. Researchers conducted experiments to establish the process of appearance of pigmentation.

Brightness of color

The photo of the aspen tree in the autumn opens the audience very bright, saturated colors. Much depends on the lighting. After all, not always the autumn view of aspen shines with such decoration. For obvious reasons, brightness is achieved when sunlight hits the crown.

In this case, several other conditions must be met. The highest saturation is reached on a cool autumn day, when the air temperature is from 0 to +7 degrees.

In the early period of autumn, they have brighter shades, but the farther away, the color becomes duller. The leaves acquire brown shades and fall off. In them, the pigment becomes less and less. Brown leaves that can be seen on the ground at the approach of winter are completely empty parts of the once bright crown from the coloring matter.

Yellow

The aspen tree in autumn can be of a variety of colors. If the sheet is dominated by carotenoids and there is no synthesis of anthocyanins, it becomes orange or yellow in color. The presence of this pigment in the leaf is also observed in the summer.

This can be established experimentally. The green sheet of aspen is ground and placed in a test tube. Alcohol draws from the mass of chlorophyll. Pigments are also found here. To separate them, 2 drops of water and 4 ml of gasoline are added to 2 ml of the resulting mixture.

The tube is vigorously shaken. The lower alcohol layer turns yellow and the upper gasoline turns green. This is easy to explain. The xanthophyll substance does not dissolve in gasoline, in which chlorophyll is readily soluble.

Carotene, together with the green color, is now in the upper layer. It is not visible, as chlorophyll clogs it. Carotene and xanthophyll are similar in their properties and belong to the same group of pigments. To detect the presence of green in the now green gasoline layer, you need to add alkali (KOH, NaOH) to the tube. It converts chlorophyll into a gas insoluble substance.

Aspen in the autumn, a description of which can often be found in fiction, there are several other chemical reactions, but their essence is the same. After shaking the test tube, the chlorophyll, which is not soluble in connection with the alkali, from the gasoline settles in the alcohol layer.

Yellow carotene now stains gasoline (becomes prominent), and the alcoholic layer became green. This proves the presence in the leaf even in summer of chlorophyll, carotene and xanthophyll.

Red pigment

To tell what color an aspen is in autumn, there will not be enough epithets. In the sheets of it can form a red pigment. This makes her color very diverse. Such pigments are called anthocyanins. They are in the cell sap of vacuoles. Their color depends on the acidity level of this liquid.

Having conducted the experience, it is easy to confirm. The red sheet of aspen is crushed and poured in water in a test tube. After heating, the liquid becomes red. It is divided into two clean test tubes.

First add acetic acid, and the second - ammonia. In the container with acid, the liquid will turn pink, and in the alkaline - yellow (sometimes blue or green, depending on the concentration).

Unlike carotenoids, anthocyanins form in the leaf after the chlorophyll content has been reduced. The increase in the structure of the leaf sugars contributes to this. Intensive formation of anthocyanins occurs in well-illuminated crowns.

Therefore, to explain what kind of aspen in the fall, you should understand the conditions of its habitat. Its color depends on the weather. In cold autumn it is red, and in warm, but rainy - yellow.

Effects and beauty of wood

Aspen in autumn strikes with its beauty of people in many countries of our planet. For example, in Colorado, the name of this tree is the popular ski resort "Aspen".

Trembling leaves of this unique beautiful plant in the wind simply fascinate the observer in the autumn afternoon. The riot of colors that nature discovers to people after losing a leaf of chlorophyll, will not leave indifferent any person.

More resistant to cold pigments carotenoids and anthocyanins, like the palette of an invisible artist, writes an autumnal picture of reality surrounding us. The genius of nature never ceases to amaze the person.

Weather and habitat conditions contribute to the colorful creation of the artist-nature. This amazing world opens up to its observer a unique, unique landscape, bringing peace and joy to the human soul.

Aspen in autumn opens an indescribable beauty spectacle. As a result of various chemical reactions under the influence of weather and habitat, the pigments manifest themselves in the leaves of the tree in the most unexpected variations. This is a very interesting and extremely exciting action.