Autumn brings a special mood. In nature, everything calms down and prepares to move to winter sleep. Trees in the rays of the autumn sun look surprisingly elegant. But aspen in autumn looks more colorful than others. This species may have the most diverse color of the crown; it creates an indescribably wonderful picture that nature gives to everyone. Walking through an autumn park or forest where aspens and other trees grow is a great idea. Watching the beauty of the world around you, you can get a lot of positive emotions and recharge with a positive attitude.
general characteristics
The aspen tree belongs to the willow family, the genus of poplars. It sometimes reaches 35 m in length. A photo of an aspen in autumn opens up a bright and very slender tree in front of the observer. The bark of the trunk has a light gray or greenish tint, sometimes with brownish notes. In the evening, the appearance of aspen in autumn can be confused with birch. This is due to the effect of "glow" of its bark.
But there are differences. The color of aspen leaves in autumn and the coloring of the trunk may somewhat resemble a birch, however, the presented tree is much more powerful. Its bark is smooth to the touch.
The description of aspen in autumn is also very similar to poplar. After all, this is her closest relative. True, the aspen leaf is more wavy and rough, and its breeze is long and flattened at the base. Thanks to this feature, the crown trembles with every breath of the breeze.
Where grows
To take a photo of aspen in the autumn in the forest, you should know where it can be found. She loves to grow in ravines, near ponds, on the fringes. Often it can be found in the neighborhood of birches and pines. Aspen in the fall next to such satellites looks very bright. The whole bouquet of colors and difficult to retell.
A tree of this variety grows on almost all types of soils and grows rapidly. Quite often you can meet their vast colonies. This is made possible by the powerful, well-developed root system of the tree.
To capture in memory or with a camera what an aspen looks like in autumn, you should go to the forest and find one of these colonies. Here a riot of colors to make admire the imagination of nature.
In the autumn aspen, you can find many varieties of mushrooms. So a walk, in addition to aesthetic pleasure, can bring quite material benefits.
How the aspen lives
Taking a walk in the autumn through a forest or park, you can take many breathtakingly beautiful photos of aspens. The life span of this tree is comparable to the human. Rarely, aspen lives more than 90 years. Very rarely found individuals that have lived up to 150 years. But for a long time, a tree can live in its own generations of overgrown.
In spring, the first aspen is covered with flowers. In summer, it is green. But autumn makes the tree especially charming. This is a completely different aspen. Leaves fall painted in a variety of colors. The variety of colors is impressive.
The decorative qualities of aspen, especially in the autumn, can hardly be overestimated. If the day is sunny, all these colorful leaves will sparkle with bright light.
Leaves
This effect of a unique beauty of brightness is achieved due to the color of the leaves. The photo of aspen in autumn, presented below, eloquently testifies to this. Each leaflet has a rounded or rhombic-rounded appearance. Sometimes the width exceeds the length.
The edge is wavy, with blunt teeth. The long breeze is thin and flexible. It can even be tied in a knot. It is flattened at the base. In the shoots and basal leaves, the length is quite large and can reach 15 cm. If they are young, they may have not pronounced fluffiness. But with age they become naked.
Color change
When contemplating the forest, aspen deserves special attention of the observer. Leaves in the fall in the same species can be of different shades. It depends on the chemical processes taking place in them.
In summer, chlorophyll predominates in the leaf in large quantities. Therefore, in all trees, the crown is green. With the advent of autumn, chlorophyll is replaced by carotenoids or anthocyanins.
Substitution occurs when nutrients are exhausted in a leaf. The sun's rays less and less stimulate the synthesis of chlorophyll. With a decrease in the nutrient reserves of the leaf, other pigments appear that previously were in it, but did not appear openly. Green chlorophyll previously suppressed them. When it disappears, hidden colors and shades come out and play in the full beauty of its diversity.
Therefore, the color of aspen leaves shines in the fall with its bright colors. Researchers conducted experiments to establish the process of the appearance of pigmentation.
Color brightness
A photo of an aspen tree in autumn opens up very bright, saturated colors. Much depends on the lighting. After all, the autumnal appearance of aspen is not always shining with such decoration. For obvious reasons, brightness is achieved when sunlight hits the crown.
In this case, several more conditions must be observed. The highest saturation is achieved on a cool autumn day, when the air temperature is from 0 to +7 degrees.
In the early period of autumn, they have brighter shades, but the farther, the coloring becomes dimmer. Leaves turn brown and fall off. In them, the pigment is becoming less. The brown leaves that can be seen on the ground as winter approaches, are particles of a once bright crown that are completely empty from coloring matter.
Yellow
Aspen tree in the fall can be of different colors. If carotenoids prevail in the leaf and there is no synthesis of anthocyanins, it acquires an orange or yellow color. The presence of this pigment in the leaf is observed in the summer.
This can be established empirically. The green aspen leaf is crushed and put into a test tube. Alcohol extracts chlorophyll from the mass. Here are the pigments. To separate them, 2 drops of water and 4 ml of gasoline are added to 2 ml of the resulting mixture.
The tube is shaken vigorously. The lower alcohol layer turns yellow, and the upper gasoline layer turns green. This is easy to explain. The substance xanthophyll does not dissolve in gasoline, in which chlorophyll is well soluble.
Carotene along with green is now in the upper layer. It is not visible, since chlorophyll clogs it. Carotene and xanthophyll are similar in their properties and belong to the same group of pigments. To detect the presence of green in the now green gasoline layer, you need to add alkali (KOH, NaOH) to the test tube. It converts chlorophyll into a gasoline insoluble substance.
Aspen in the fall, the description of which can be so often found in fiction, undergoes several other chemical reactions, but their essence is the same. After shaking the tubes, insoluble chlorophyll from gasoline, insoluble in combination with alkali, settles in the alcohol layer.
Yellow carotene now stains gasoline (becomes visible), and the alcohol layer turns green. This proves the presence of chlorophyll, carotene and xanthophyll in the leaf even in summer.
Red pigment
There are not enough epithets to tell what color aspen is in the fall. In its sheets a red pigment may also form. This makes her color very diverse. Such pigments are called anthocyanins. They are in the cell juice of vacuoles. Their color depends on the level of acidity of this liquid.
Through experience, it is easy to confirm. The red aspen leaf is crushed and filled with water in a test tube. After heating, the liquid becomes red. It is divided into two clean tubes.
Acetic acid is added in the first, and ammonia in the second. In an acid container, the liquid will turn pink, and in an alkaline one, yellow (sometimes blue or green, depending on concentration).
Unlike carotenoids, anthocyanins are formed in the leaf after a decrease in the chlorophyll content. An increase in the structure of the sugar sheet contributes to this. The formation of anthocyanins in well-lit crowns occurs more intensively.
Therefore, to explain which aspen in the fall, you should understand the conditions of its habitat. Its color depends on the weather. In cold autumn it is red, and in warm, but rainy - yellow.
