In autumn, when the daylight hours get less most plants drop their leaves. Before they do so they remove all the important nutrients from the leaves and the leave then slowly die. During this process the colour pigment plants use to harvest sunlight – so called chlorophyll – degrades. The pigment is normally green, when it degrades however it changes colour. This is the different colours we see in autumn. It shows the leaves are dying and ready to fall off.
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