I live in Germany but used to visit the US frequently. The fall colors in the US always impressed me. I mean, obviously we have fall colors in Germany too. But they don’t compare, they seem more faded.
Edit: Talking about the trees! Didn’t specify, sorry!
In: Biology
I think comparing with the whole Europe is not fair either. I live in NL but I am from Spain and the colours of the trees indeed are different in both countries.
Unfortunately I can’t compare with the US because I’ve never been there but I guess it is also not fair comparing Germany with the whole US since it’s huge. I’m sure depending on the region you have different climate conditions and different vegetation which will make different colours as well
The color of the leaves depend on a few factors. One is the type of tree. Different trees contain different chemicals, which react differently. Another big component is the weather. New England is great for “leaf peeping” as they call it because the temperature swings so much in the fall. It is not uncommon to have a 75F degree day but at night it gets down to 50F. This temperature swing activates the chemicals in the tree. The tree gets the signal to prepare for winter, so it stops pumping out chlorophyll, which is what makes the leaves green. This allows the other colors to come out, and the colder the night temperatures the better the color, as long as you don’t get frost. Since New England will get a solid month or so of these temperature swings beginning in September, the result is a brightly colored forest around early October.
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It isn’t everywhere in the U.S. The really impressive colors are in New England and the northern Midwest. It’s just a combination of climate, the degree of how forested it is, and the variety of species there. For example, the [sugar maple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acer_saccharum) turns very vivid red, and it’s only native to North America.
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