“If we’re not getting the colors now, then they’re not going to come back,” said Sarah Lawson, assistant professor of biology at Quinnipiac University.
Up and down the Connecticut River is a perfect snapshot of peak foliage in New England. All the usual colors, only this year, perhaps a bit muted.
Lawson said plentiful rainfall over the last few months have played a role in dampening the foliage.
The question is – why?
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“It has to do with how they’re moving the sugars out of the leaves of their veins, so if it’s too wet, they will move them too quickly and then the leaves will die, so it has to do with the water pressure,” Lawson said.
But all is not lost - just ask those aboard the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat on Thursday.
“There’s a lot more color than I thought there would be. It’s really green right around here, but as we were on the train it looked like there was good color out there,” one passenger said.
According to the Connecticut Tourism Office, peak foliage will come at different times in different parts of the state.
- Connecticut Northwest/Northeast Corners: October 3 – 8
- Connecticut Eastern and Western Mid-State Counties: October 16 - 23
- Shoreline and lower Connecticut River Valley: October 24 - 30
- Southwest Corner: November 7 - 14
