Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Botany Question

As you might have guessed from the preceding photos, I've been up on a heavily forested mountain. Went camping for 2 days and became so enamored of colored leaves that I took 64 photographs. Scientifically I understand that the color is caused by the loss of chlorophyll in the leaves. But why on God's green earth are there such brilliant colors underneath? And why not on all deciduous leaves? I've not found anyone to explain that to me. So in the meantime I am going to anthropomorphize the reason and believe some leaves are colorful because people need a little cheerfulness before the dark days of winter fully set in. Anyone have a better reason?

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