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Trees’ Time to Winterize | Highlands Biological Station
Written By: Paige Engelbrektsso | Issue: 2020/10 - October
From the Smokies to Satulah, autumn is coming, and the Highlands Biological Foundation is gearing up for our next virtual program where we’ll explore why the greenery draping across our mountains will soon change in a wave of brilliant color.
What we enjoy as a spectacular display is actually a tree winterizing itself. Rather than risk frozen, damaged leaves or catching too much snow, deciduous trees slough their leaves off every year and regrow them the next spring.
The vivid color change is a striking sign of this virtually invisible process. On each tree, at the base of each leaf, a layer of special cells will eventually form. These cells weaken the leaf’s connection to the tree. With the right breeze, it will fall onto the forest floor – or your front lawn. While we might see it as an inconvenience, fallen leaves are invaluable habitat for our local wildlife.
The leaf litter sprinkled throughout our forests and lawns serves as a winter refuge for many species of arthropods and vertebrates including millipedes, ground beetles, salamanders and shrews. The leaves trap the relative heat of the earth and keep these animals from freezing. This insulating effect helps queen bumble bees tucked underground in their burrows as well as Mourning Cloak, Eastern Comma, and Question Mark butterflies which overwinter in leaf litter as adults.
For these reasons, consider leaving parts of your yard “rake and blower-free” this fall – the butterflies, bees, and salamanders will thank you!
If you’re wondering what causes the color change, tune into our next virtual program titled Nature 101: Fall Colors. We host our Nature 101 series on the third Tuesday of each month to explore basic natural history topics and to answer questions like this. In October, we’ll explore the science, compare characteristic colors, and touch on what conditions make for a spectacular leaf display.
You can watch the premiere on the Highlands Biological Station’s Facebook page (@highlandsbiologicalstation) on Tuesday, October 20, at 1:00 P.M. or find it afterward on the Highlands Biological Foundation’s YouTube channel.
For more information, please visit highlandsbiological.org or contact us at (828) 526-2623.
