I think it’s climate. New England and eastern Canada (where I live) have a Continental climate with a very pronounced summer and winter. As a side effect autumn is compressed and all the trees change at the same time. Right now it’s amazing, but in a few weeks it will be over. When I lived in the UK individual trees looked great but the colour change was spread out from September to Christmas so you never had all the trees in colour at the same time.
The US has 2 brilliant fall trees not native to Europe: the sugar maple ( *Acer saccharum)* and the black gum (*Nyssa Sylvatica)* that provide gorgeous colors of red and orange that make New England so famous. The red maple (*Acer Rubrum*) also provides brilliant reds to the landscape.
The Norway maple (*Acer platanoides)* turns a lovely amber, but is not as bright. Oak trees with a few exceptions turn brown and are not as attractive. In the European cities, the London planetree (*Platanus x acerifolia)* dominates. Its leaves turn brown and papery in the fall.
I live in the blue ridge mountains and we’re supposed to have great colors this year. It has to do with the types of trees that are native to this area and the weather that year. Trees need to have low enough temperatures to stop making chlorophyll and reveal beautiful colors. Too late in the year or too cold or too moist or too dry and they just shrivel and fall off.
Climate and biodiversity. The majority of the U.S. is in the “sweet spot” for Autumn foliage weather, and our forests feature a *lot more* variety of species than Europe. This means our color change season is prolonged *and* we have a lot more different trees and plants to show off their unique colors.
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