Appreciate the Green

   

   by Chuck Tague

   

    Last week I noticed the leaves on the Virginia Creeper had turned red.  This is a common strategy of plants that produce small fruits that ripen in the late summer, especially if these fruits are to be eaten by migrating songbirds.  In return, the thrushes, catbirds, waxwings and grosbeaks disperse the seeds far and wide.  Because these fruits are small and difficult to see, leaves of these plants turn color, usually red, while most other plants remain green.  These foliar fruit flags signal the presence of food to passing birds.

    To me, the Virginia Creeper leaves signaled an event.  The color of our world is about to change.

A Barred Owl in the shade of a basswood tree

    Green dominates western Pennsylvania from the beginning of May to late summer.  It is not the dominance of this color, however, but its variation that fascinates me.  The shades and intensities of green in one hillside alone stagger the imagination.  Different plants have different shades and different intensities of green, and the composition of each hillside is unique.  The angle of the sun always shifts and shadows shrink, disappear and grow again until night absorbs them.  Clouds float by. The moisture in the atmosphere fluctuates and the wind with its ever changing direction and velocity, twists and turns each of the leaves, exposing the color of its underside. Each leaf grows and matures, and with all growth begins deterioration.  Leaves must constantly fight predators and disease.  Some win, others lose.  Moisture reserves in the soil vary, nutrients sometimes run out and energy is diverted for other needs of the plant.

A morning Glory Caterpillar destroys a leaf.

    The greens of a hillside reflect all these factors, and more, and our perspective, of course, is never the same.  We move from one point to another and our focus changes from an up close examination to a vast scanning panorama.  Occasionally, we will look up from the forest floor and catch a glimpse of an enchanted wonderland as sunlight filters through the highest leaves, dappling the trunks and floor.  More often then not, we don't notice the green at all.

Bitternut Hickory

    Color in the living world has many functions.  It communicates and protects, signals and conceals.  It also reflects or absorbs heat and light.  Green, the color of chlorophyll, is the base line color of living plant communities, the product of photosynthesis.

    The next few weeks will bring an end to the dominance of green.  No longer will growth be the objective.  All living things must prepare for winter.  As autumn approaches, the subtle variations of greens will be replaced by large splashes of color from all parts of the spectrum.  Soft lilac and vibrant purple flowers will accent the gleaming fields of goldenrod.  Along the forest edge, reds, blues, whites and yellows will advertise fruit and nectar to the animals needed to disperse pollen and seeds.  There will be daily changes in the colors of the trees.  All of this is just a preview to one of the world's most spectacular displays of natural color, our autumn leaves.

    Appreciate the green, the color of life.  Soon it will disappear, hidden away, waiting for next year.

   

Autumn begins on September 22.