So another week had arrived and I hope that the shock to the system with the Indian Summer two weekends ago was not too great. However that sudden burst of warmer weather will have helped to create a autumnal rainbow of colours.
Why do they turn different colours in autumn? A relatively easy article to read from How Stuff Works explains that the green leaves, containing chlorophyll, turn carbon dioxide, sunlight and water into energy through photosynthesis. Easy so far. As stated earlier, the chlorophyll aids the transformation with the assistance of pigments carotene and xanthophyll. These pigments are found in all leaves, the carotene adding an orangey hue, similar to egg yolks, and the xanthophyll adding a yellow colour. However, when autumn comes, the deciduous trees prepare for hibernation in a two step process: primarily the tree creates a cork like layer at the end of each leaf so that it may eject the leaf at some point later in the year and thus it seals off the tree from potential infection; secondly, the production of chlorophyll decreases and this gives the carotene and xanthophyll a chance to add oranges and yellows to the leaf.
The red colour comes from a different substance that is not present in all leaves, this is anthocyanin. Even if this substance is within the leaf, it may not produce the red colour in autumn as it depends on certain environmental parameters. The tree will try to recover as much sugar and energy from the leaf before it falls to the ground, and this is where the anthocyanin becomes necessary. It is thought that if the weather is still sunny and quite dry int he late summer and early autumn, a greater number of anthocyanins are released from the tree sap to the leaves in order to make more sugars and other nutrients. Some scientists say that other stress events, such as near freezing weather, can increase the level of anthocyanins. It is also thought that the red pigment acts as a protection for the leaf. So with the weather we have had, I expect to see increased amounts of orange (carotenes), red (anthocyanins) and yellow (xanthophylls) in the falling leaves.
I had a wonderful chat with the ladies in the Battle branch of Age UK East Sussex recently. There was Sally Davis and Rosemary Gallagher. Rose took over the organisation of the children's party in the village hall a few years after Cyril and Alice Carey had managed it, as Cyril had died and Alice had moved to Hollington; George Sax was the chairman of the committee and a flier had been sent to all the villagers stating that if no-one came forward to take on the running of the party, it would no longer exist. Rose was secretary and Chris Hayles was treasurer in the early 1980s. Can anyone remember these parties and have I spelt Chris's surname correctly?
Rose, came to the village in 1972, also ran the Whatlington Table Tennis Association in the Village Hall in the late 60's and early 70's, does anyone remember this or did you win any prizes there? It ran on a weekday night with the table tennis table being transported down the hill to the village hall. Latterly, a table tennis table was bought, but with dwindling numbers and the rise of Village Hall hire costs, the club sadly closed.
Not only did Rose run these two clubs, she also organised a Saturday morning club for parents to drop their children off at the Village Hall so that shopping could be done without taking the children to the shops. All sorts of activities used to occur here, especially drawing and painting. At the time, Miss Pratt of Park Lane used to be in charge of the Village Hall. Can anyone remember this was? Sally Davis came to the village in 1979 with her husband, Clive.
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