The Falling of Leaves

As fall temperatures drop, trees begin to lose their green (chlorophyll), and their fall foliage of vibrant red, yellow, and orange appears. Earlier in the year, maples have dropped seedpods (sometimes called helicopters, samaras, or whirligigs) that, remarkably, look like little angels. As maple leaves drop in fall, the seedpods have been preparing for new growth. 

And often near mid-November, goldenrod ginkgo leaves drop all at once! Like all deciduous trees, they have formed a scar between leaf and stem, but the first…