{"id":7404,"date":"2016-09-02T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=7404"},"modified":"2016-07-20T21:21:50","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T01:21:50","slug":"leaf-retention-in-landscape-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2016\/09\/02\/leaf-retention-in-landscape-trees\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaf Retention In Landscape Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leaf<\/a>

Leaf retention of American Beech<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beech<\/a>

Beech in Tennessee Woodlands<\/p><\/div>\n

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Most deciduous landscape trees drop\u00a0their leaves sometime in autumn. The physiology of autumn leaf drop is primarily\u00a0stimulated by changes in photoperiod or shorter daylength. Autumn colors\u00a0develop\u00a0and the leaf petioles\u00a0form an abscission layer. Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica<\/em>), for example, start to color up\u00a0in early September.<\/p>\n

W<\/span>inter leaf retention by deciduous <\/span>tree<\/span>s is <\/span>term<\/span>ed \u201cmarcescence\u201d. <\/span>Some hardwood trees, particularly Beech (Fagus spp.<\/i>) and oak (Quercus spp<\/em>.) trees, retain their leaves through the winter months\u00a0in Northeastern U.S.\u00a0Oaks and beeches\u00a0<\/span>are in the Fagaceae family.\u00a0<\/span>Additional species include <\/span>witch hazel (Hamamelis spp.<\/em>), hornbeam (Carpinus spp.<\/em>), and hophornbeam (Ostrya virginina<\/em>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Most (not all) o<\/span>aks and b<\/span>eeches begin shedding old leaves the latter days of February. Plant scientists\u00a0<\/span>speculate that retained leaves may deter browsing animals such as deer. The dried leaves may help to\u00a0<\/span>protect dormant<\/span>\u00a0buds or make them difficult to nibble on<\/span>. D<\/span>ried leaves are likely\u00a0less nutritious.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most years Japanese maple (Acer palmatum<\/i>) have\u00a0shed their\u00a0leaves by late\u00a0November. Some\u00a0cultivars may be slow to shed their foliage,\u00a0and are caught in\u00a0an early hard frost. Leaves turn brown and hang on for several weeks, sometimes for months. Dissected leaf varieties are more affected\u00a0compared to\u00a0palmate\u00a0types. Fine textured dissected-leaf cultivars, like \u2018Tamukeyama\u2019 and \u2018Waterfall\u2019, often\u00a0retain their brown withered\u00a0foliage until\u00a0early March.<\/p>\n

Young and newly planted landscape trees tend to retain leaves their first year after planting. Fruit trees, specifically apple and pear trees, are in a juvenile stage.<\/p>\n

But not to worry.\u00a0 High winds, snow loads, and rains\u00a0in\u00a0winter, in addition to\u00a0swelling of vegetative buds\u00a0in the spring\u00a0causes marcescent leaves to fall to the ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              Most deciduous landscape trees drop\u00a0their leaves sometime in autumn. The physiology of autumn leaf drop is primarily\u00a0stimulated by changes in photoperiod or shorter daylength. Autumn colors\u00a0develop\u00a0and the leaf petioles\u00a0form an abscission layer. Black gum (Nyssa sylvatica), for example, start to color up\u00a0in early September. Winter leaf retention by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[818,922,910,1082,1166,778,820,1023,1051,1202,1203,1084,468,202,1210,7,1074,1222,850,655,455,642,848],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8898,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7404\/revisions\/8898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}