OF ALL BRITAIN’S WILDLIFE spectacles, surely the hardest to miss is the fanfare of autumn colour marking both the end of summer and the long descent to winter. Providing the most fabulous fillip on any woodland walk, the precise reasons why so many of our trees undergo such a radical transformation at this time of year are still shrouded in mystery.
The woody parts of Britain’s deciduous trees are more than able to survive the winter. But with light levels becoming too low to enable photosynthesis and trees needing