The leaves are turning - but be under no illusions, this is not autumn | Alys Fowler

Extreme heat has caused trees to shed their leaves early and summer crops to give up. It's nature's equivalent of grabbing whatever you can when leaving a burning buildingThe first cool mornings, the sweet rot of fallen apples, the sight of seed heads and spent foliage - these are all signs that autumn is here. But what happens when it starts coming earlier? When the floor is littered with burnt leaves, when the summer crops give up early and the flowers fade before all the pollinators get their fill? What has happened is a "false" autumn brought forth by extreme heat and uncertain weather patterns.The leaves on the ground of your local park and pavements are not the normal autumn leaves, where a deciduous tree has reclaimed as many valuable chemicals as possible from the leaf, so that the colours beneath are exposed, before sending it to ground. The extraction of pigments in a leaf is a slow process that takes trees several weeks, but the blast of extreme heat stole this from the plants and instead they had to slough off resources as they struggled to stay hydrated. These are the leaves we see right now: brown, curled and fried by the sun. Continue reading...