Dazzling colour change to stay for a few weeks

Nature's dazzling colour change has just begun in the autumn leaves of deciduous trees and shrubs.

- TOM PATTINSON

But unlike the brief chemically based fireworks displays we anticipate on November 5, the show they offer continues for several weeks and is governed by the weather.

A warm and wet spring followed by a moist summer without extremes of temperature is deemed to result in long displays. Warm, sunny days followed by cool nights certainly extended the leaf colour fest.

Lower temperatures and shorter daylight hours are the catalysts that kick-start the process of leaf fall, which is basically nature's way of withdrawing valuable food elements back to the parent plant before discarding the canopy.