Two months ago, July 10th, the sun set here at 8:38 p.m., and this evening it set at 7:30 p.m. Summer is now marching into autumn.

As the days become shorter, trees sense that change. Their chlorophyll production slows, their leaves lose the green they started out with in the spring and other colors emerge. In Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), leaves turn crimson. This is a reaction to trapped sugars in the leaves which create pigments, anthocyanins, that along with the loss of chlorophyll turn the leaves to their beautiful red.

And of course in the Flowering Dogwoods the berries are also red and waiting for neighboring wildlife to discover them and come dine.

And within a month all these leaves, green turning to red, with fall to the ground, another stage in the season of autumn.