Ozark Fall Foliage Trip Planning
for the North Central Arkansas & South Central
Missouri Corridor
Norfork Lake, Bull Shoals Lake, White
River, Glade Top Trail, and Ozark National Forest areas
Details To Guidelines
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Rule 1 Details - Every Ozark Fall Has
Color
If leaves are green, there WILL be color. For there to be no color all trees would need to
be DEAD! Quantity and quality of fall color is entirely dependent upon fall weather
conditions - temperature, sunlight, and fall rains. Summer drought has very little to do
with it. Chlorophyll is what colors leaves green. As chlorophyll drains out of leaves in
the fall, other chemicals remaining in the leaves are what we see as fall color.
A leaf is a highly complex and wonderful creation. Using a long list
of chemical processes, it takes minerals from the earth brought to it by the tree's root
and sap system, then "mixes" those minerals with sunlight to produce
"food" which the tree uses to stay alive and grow. This process comes to a halt
during what we know as fall foliage.
Shorter daylight hours trigger chemical reactions in every leaf on a
tree. Less sunshine each day means at some point chlorophyll can no longer convert enough
sunlight and minerals into energy for a tree to continue growing. Plant chemistry senses
this change, which in turn triggers other chemical events in the tree. Sap, which is to a
tree what blood is to a human, begins to drain out of the trunk and branches where it is
stored in the tree's roots for the winter.The tree begins to go dormant.
Chlorophyll continues to drain out with the sap. As it does highly
specialized "gate keeper" cells at the base of the leaf stem start to close off
sap flow to the leaf. As chlorophyll drains out, and no new sap comes into the leaf, many
other chemicals are left behind in the leaf itself, drying into the colors we see.
Eventually all the chemicals either evaporate or drain out of the leaf at the end of the
peak color period, then the leaf falls to the ground all brown and dry.
The rate at which this complex chemical process occurs is entirely
dependent upon fall weather conditions. Like baking a cake, the right ingredients in the
right amounts must mix together in the right amount of heat. Too little or too much of any
one ingredient, too little or too much heat, and the cake is not so good.
It would take an entire book to explain all the chemical processes
involved. To keep things simple all one needs to know is that sunshine levels and
temperature control what chemicals drain out of leaves and which ones remain, and how fast
the whole thing happens. This is why it is impossible to predict what fall color qualitity
and quanity will be more than a few days in advance. While we know what TIME of year color
will happen, we cannot say what the color quality will be.
Details To Guidelines
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