FALL-ing in love with the big picture!

Why is Fall so beautiful here? oh! I just keep falling in love with this landscape; all these colors…
This weekend I went to Blacksburg (southwest of Virginia state) for a meeting, and I couldn't resist bringing the camera with me. It was a long trip (3h30) but I think it was worth it because I could breathe the autumn and observe all its magic tones! Fortunately, my labmate drove the car. God bless you! ;)
The Fall foliage it's just breathtaking! I wish some portuguese kings, like D. Afonso III and D. Dinis (check wikipedia ;)) had spread a few deciduous trees in our portuguese forests… (However, my sister, a geographer, told me those species are difficult to adapt to our Mediterranean climate; that's why we are surrounded by pines and shrubs, get it?)
And do you know why we see so many colors? So, the green leaf is green because of the presence of a pigment known as chlorophyll. However, as the chlorophylls degrade, the hidden pigments of yellow xanthophylls and orange beta-carotene are revealed. These pigments are present throughout the year (but masked by chlorophyll), but the red pigments, the anthocyanins, are synthesized de novo once roughly half of chlorophyll has been degraded. :)
Now, enjoy the topography and let’s leaf peeping!

kiss,kiss
JB*

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