From Pennsylvania to Maine, people have been saying, “Where’s the fall color in the trees?”

The yellows, reds, oranges, even the purples — notable by their absence this year.

It’s the chlorophyll. Chlorophyll needs to degrade (breakdown) so the underlying colors (the anticipated fall colors) can show. Those other colors, the reds etc., are there all the time; they’re just covered by the dominant green of chlorophyll.

With the excessive heat of this summer and fall (ten degrees above normal for mid-October here in PA) the chlorophyll hasn’t degraded. Maine reports seventy per cent less color than a year ago. Now, climate change doesn’t go that fast, so some of this year’s oddity is just that — an oddity. But we are getting warmer and it is going to affect fall color in our trees.

A lovely and rare tree. Seen by John Bartam and his brother William in 1765 along the banks of the Alatamaha River in Geogia. John collected seeds which he planted and cultivated at his home near Philadelphia

He named the tree Franklinia in honor of his father’s friend, Benjamin Franklin. The tree has not been seen in the wild since the early 1800’s. All current Franklinia trees are descendents of those seeds John Bartram collected almost 260 years ago.