Beech Tree News Network

I’ve noticed trees that hold on to their leaves all winter and often asked myself, “Why are they holding on to those dead leaves?"  I decided it was time to investigate.  It turns out there is a word for the cause that keeps leaves holding on to those trees when their friends have long ago let go.  The word is marcescence, and there are legitimate reasons for this process.

               First you have to understand why trees shed their leaves in the fall in the first place.  It is an act of self-preservation.  When fall arrives, the days are getting shorter, which means less sunlight.  The tree needs to conserve water and other nutrients that go to the leaves in warmer months.

               The process by which trees shed their leaves is called abscission.  Stay with me, I’m going somewhere with this, I promise.  The abscission process activates an abscission layer, a weak layer between the leaf and the tree.  This serves as a cue to the leaf that it’s time to let go.  Factors like early frost can disrupt the process, so the leaf is stuck, holding on to the tree.

               There are other reasons for the leaf to remain on the tree while their friends have long since caught a breeze to Jamaica.  Sometimes the tree holds on so that the leaves can be broken down slowly, releasing nutrients that can be recycled back into the tree.  Which means that these leaves that appear to be dead aren’t really dead at all.  There is also a third reason why trees hold onto their leaf children.  Some young trees have growth spurts during cold weather, the leaves still holding on to the trees can help recapture nitrogen needed for the tree’s growth. 

               Now for the afore promised “going somewhere with this.”  So much of who we are as human beings is reflected in nature and vice versa.  When you see a tree holding on to “dead” leaves, you might think, “I wonder what’s going on there?  All of the other trees have let go of their leaves.  What’s wrong with that one?”

               We might look at a friend or family member, who is holding on to something we would have long ago let go of and think or say similar things.  “It’s time for that kid to leave home.  Why does she stay in that relationship?  You’d think he would have learned to let go of that by now.”  Sometimes, all we can see are dead leaves, but there is more going on beneath the surface.  Sometimes there is new growth we can’t see, and when the time is right, the new growth will push the old growth from the tree—that’s what happens to trees in the spring—and we will stand amazed at the person before us.

               I might have shared the example of the triangle and relationships before, so bear with me if I have.  A counselor presented this to me many years ago.  Draw a triangle.  Put yourself at the top point.  Put a person of your choosing at the bottom left position.  Put a person of your choosing at the bottom right position.  Look at the lines.  Your line runs to the bottom left position.  Your line runs to the bottom right position.  Your line does not intersect the line between the bottom right position and the bottom left position.  You are not part of that relationship.  It belongs to those two people.  The dynamics of that relationship are for those two people to figure out, and just like the trees with their leaves, there is always more than meets the eye.