I’m puzzled by beech trees. They are deciduous and their leaves turn bronze in the autumn, but they don’t fall off the tree. Instead, they hang on until spring when other plants are putting out their new leaves. How do these trees benefit from this different approach to deciduousness?
• This approach does benefit a beech’s ecosystem. Leaf litter is a resource to the forest and any leaves shed by beech trees in spring will extend the litter period until autumn when the other species, usually maples, drop their leaves. One noticeable beneficiary is beechdrops, a flowering plant devoid of chlorophyll that is a symbiont of…
