It's not on earth, that's for sure. Trees don't just wake up and decide, "welp, I'm going to be red."

Did you ask them?

When it does finally get cool enough at night for that change to trigger, yes

They sure seem to do that every year

Yeah. They said, "leaf me alone and go away."

Round here they get vaguely yellow for about two days and then all the leaves immediately fall off.

If it were a choice you'd probably see some rebels that just stayed green all year.

Yeah, I've seen some that stay ever green.

For the tree in my mothers backyard, that was about three days after the last leaf pickup of the year.

Those still cannot choose to turn red though... It depends on the species.

https://www.finegardening.com/article/conifers-that-change-color-in-winter-for-added-interest?srsltid=AU7gw4XuNX-FGA3kR2ND1PZ_9VpQ4b5tPJZ4VTqhdmqXiaWbQO0Q2Mvr

Alright so basically you're saying trees can turn any color they like by choice at any time. No matter which species. They'll basically change into a color changing species if they want to?

Otherwise I cannot make sense of this. The fact that pinus sylvestris stays green is answered by some coniferen that change colors.

Yeah they're fickle little sluts

I bet your mum turns red every autumn too, or sometimes stays green. Whatever she feels like.

Here in Australia, they’re basically all evergreens. Well the natives at least.

the only native that isn't is a small shrub in Tassie I think?

we have a few in our yard that get reds and yellows (non natives) in Tassie. We. didn't plant them and quite a few around our little village.

Did they turn red after?

I have the feeling you turned red too

Well, sure as hell not by choice

I will do you a favor and not derail this conversation into the question what choice even means and if it is real at all.

Do you think trees choose to evolve into a species that turns red in autumn?