The brilliant colors of fall have arrived
Lesson summary
Hi there, thanks for joining us for Plain English, lesson number 305. I’m Jeff; JR is behind the controls, the producer; and the full lesson can be found at PlainEnglish.com/305.
Coming up today: the leaves are turning colors in North America and this is prime time for foliage tourism. I’ll explain what that is and why it’s such a big deal in Canada and parts of the US. In the second half of today’s audio lesson, we’ll talk about the phrasal verb “roll around”—see if you can guess what that means when you hear it.
Fall foliage time
With only brief exceptions, I have always lived in the north of the United States. I grew up in the state of Connecticut and have lived in either the northeast and the upper Midwest for most of my life. So when late September rolls around, I’m ready for trees to burst in spectacular colors: orange, red, yellow, brown, even purple sometimes.
But it occurs to me that we have many listeners in tropical climates or parts of the world where the change in colors is more muted, or perhaps doesn’t even happen at all. JR grew up in the Mexican state of Veracruz, and he tells me that some trees—not all, but some—would just turn yellow and then brown; but that others would stay green all year. He said he knows it’s fall here in Chicago when all the trees start to turn bright colors.
So I thought we would talk about something called “fall foliage.” Fall foliage is the time in Canada and northern parts of the US that experience the bursts of color on the leaves of the trees as the weather gets cool. It’s a big driver of tourism and a nice benefit to living in the part of the world.
Start with what it is: when the nighttime temperatures get cooler, the autumn leaves start to transition from green to other colors. When the colors are at their most brilliant, it’s called “peak foliage.” In the northern regions, this happens earlier; farther south, it happens later. For example, in northern Quebec and Ontario, the leaves start to turn in early September, and hit peak foliage around late September. Montreal and far northern reaches of the US will have their peak foliage in early- to mid-October. The Smoky Mountains in the southeast will get fall colors only at high elevations, and that happens in late October and early November. Farther south, trees do sometimes change color, but not nearly like they do in the north. The very best places are the northeast and the Upper Midwest.
The colors are so bright and varied that many locations depend on foliage tourism. People from the south, or just from the cities, will travel to the woods, hike, and go for scenic drives just to get the great views of the trees changing color. This is popular in the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and the northern American states like Vermont, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Michigan. There’s a term for people who go looking for the most beautiful time of year to see fall foliage: They are “leaf peepers.”
There was a funny episode of Family Guy where annoying New York tourists bother the innocent residents of Quahog, seeking out the best views of the foliage. There are even web sites dedicated to helping “leaf peepers” determine the very best week to see the fall foliage at their destination.
Trees do change color in many parts of the world, but we are lucky here where the foliage really turns. If you go on a hike up a mountain, or even just on a hill, and you look down at the trees below, it’s like looking at a multi-colored quilt of leaves, all in their bright, varied colors. You see every shade in between bright red and bright yellow.
Some years are better than others, though. The ideal conditions for the brightest leaves are when the days are warm and the nights are cool—but not too cool. If we get a frost—if it’s below freezing too early in the year—the foliage won’t be as brilliant.
Trees in northern Europe change, too, but not in the same way. In North America, we have 800 species of leafy trees, including 70 kinds of oak trees. In Europe, they have far less diversity in these kinds of trees.
Here’s an interesting fact I learned: the yellow and orange colors are actually there all summer long, but they’re covered up by the green, the chlorophyll. This is what helps the tree derive energy from the sun. When the weather starts to get cooler, the stems of the leaves harden, blocking the flow of water to the leaf. The chlorophyll eventually disappears, leaving the orange and yellow pigments visible. The red leaves are a different story: maple trees produce the red pigment during the autumn.
I’ve mentioned that this is popular in eastern Canada and the northern and eastern parts of the US. It’s also popular in Japan—they even have a term for leaf peeping. It’s called (and forgive the pronunciation) “Momijigari”, which I’m told is a combination of “red leaves” and “hunting.” That makes sense. Foliage tourism is also popular in southern Argentina and parts of Australia and New Zealand—though of course, that would be in April and May.
Leaf Peepers on Family Guy
The relevant Family Guy episode is Season 3, Episode 7, if you want to look for it, though of course, as with all Family Guy episodes, be forewarned that there are adult themes in the show! The episode is called “Lethal Weapons.”
Hey, just a quick reminder that we publish the full English transcript of every lesson on our web site. It’s a great free benefit. If you have a little trouble picking up every word as you listen, you might benefit from reading the transcript while you listen—or just check the transcript after you listen to make sure you picked up all the words. You can get to the transcript with the lesson number. This is lesson 305, so you just go to PlainEnglish.com/305 and you can see the transcripts of the main lesson and the expression.
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