Beech Leaves

[Ken Rennie]

I am still trying to understand the fairly common phenomenon of golden beech leaves on the ground throughout the year. I have never really noticed that the beech hedges in our garden which turn a lovely dark gold in the Autumn retain that colour deep into the Winter. How long this lasts before they eventually fall and why the leaves take a very long time to disintegrate. The Apple and Sycamore leaves turn into a mush fairly quickly but we have beech leaf litter under the hedges that still look fresh at any time of the year. I suspect that marcescence, holding onto leaves after they have turned golden, somehow changes the leaf but my ignorance on this is profound, some reading is necessary. A part of our beech hedge today. Ken

 

[AlanLichty]

Curious how this plant takes on these characteristics. Do they ever get a lot of broken branches in the winter from snow?

 

[JimFox]

That's really an interesting thought. I am trying to think if I have seen similar effects on any of the trees here.

 

[Ken Rennie]

Curious how this plant takes on these characteristics. Do they ever get a lot of broken branches in the winter from snow?

Alan we seldom get snow and if we do the 2 or 3 inches would be considered a heavy snowfall. However there are many beech forests in high snowfall areas of Poland and Germany. Since the leaves can be blown off then they may just snap if too much snow lands on them. Similarly we have a 50mph wind blowing at the moment which could damage foliage laden branches but the leaves just blow off. Ken