For a few short days every year, Japanese Maples (Acer palmatum) explode into radiant hues of reds, oranges and yellows. Never constant and always fleeting, this brilliant display of colours, is affected ever so slightly by subtle changes in weather, temperature, moisture and precipitation levels, and is never exactly the same year-to-year. The short-lived phenomenon of ethereal colours, disappears as quickly as it began, with every passing gust of wind, every drop of rain, knocking individual leafs off of tree branches. Until, finally, the tree is ready for its wintery repose.
