The reason that leaves are green in the summer is because photosynthesis is still happening and there is still plenty of food for the plant. There are also little things inside the plant that are the different colors like red, orange,& yellow but they are so small that you can't see them so the green color dominates over them. But when it starts to change seasons like to fall the photosynthesis starts to not happen as much anymore and the other colors start to show more and they eventually dominate over the green. The reason that yellow and orange leaves change to yellow and orange is because of the carotene and the xanthophyll. The reason that the red leaves change to red is because of the anthocyanins. But unlike carotene or xanthophyll the anthocyanins is not in the leaf year-round. It doesn't start making this untill almost all the green in the leaf is gone that is when it starts to synthesize the anthocyanins. The brown leaves are pretty much just all of the waste from the plant.
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