September 13, 2025

What a marvelous jigsaw puzzle this would make. Light shining through the changing leaves of a Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida).

Every year I notice as summer is just beginning, in late June, that the Dogwoods are just starting little by little to lose the green of their leaves. Ever so slowly getting a hint of red.

That slow change, green to red, happens as the chlorophyll which is used to convert sunlight to energy during photosynthesis, begins to break down. The loss of chlorophyll reveals the yellow and orange pigments that were already in the leaves.

Most of the year, these leaves are green because of the chlorophyll they use to absorb energy from sunlight during photosynthesis. The leaves convert the energy into sugars to feed the tree. Deep, rich red colors that are seen in Dogwoods and Oaks happen due to the sugars that can become trapped in the leaves. Those trapped sugars cause a chemical change which creates new pigments, anthocyanins, which produce red, purple, and blue colors.

Ah, nature. So complicated and so amazing.

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