A Little Bit About Leaves

Leaves are EVERYWHERE!... oh wait, never mind, it's winter and they're all gone. Why are they there one moment, and gone the next?

Let's talk about autumn for a minute, shall we? Autumn is the season where all of the

trees shed the leaves they grew over spring and summer. These leaves fall to the ground throughout all of Autumn, leaving all of their beautiful colors strewn about within a very large radius of themselves, which is why this season is also known to many as "Fall". But wait a minute, why do they shed their leaves? Don't they need them for breathing or something? Well yes, they do. But once winter hits, if those leaves are still there, it could seriously damage, or even kill the tree. Trees shed their leaves as a tactic of survival through the winter. 

How does shedding an essential part of the tree keep it alive? That doesn't seem to make any sense at all. Well you see, each and every one of those leaves contains water and energy given to it by the tree at some point and time. Once the temperatures start to drop and winter draws closer, the tree absorbs all of the energy from those leaves to sustain itself throughout the winter. You could almost consider the color of the leaves as an indication of the energy left in that leaf. If the leaf is green, there is energy that can still be taken by the tree. If it's orange or yellow, the tree has already begun to drain the energy from the leaf. Once the leaf has fallen off by natural means, it has little to no energy left to provide for the tree.

But a leaf "leaves" its tree for more than one reason. When the leaves have fallen off, it's easier for the wind to carry pollen from the tree to other nearby trees to pollinate. And leaves are actually considered a great fertilizer once they've decomposed into the earth.

 

There are some trees that don't lose their leaves during winter, such as the maple or the cypress tree, which are known as evergreens. Other trees that don't shed their leaves during winter tend to be in tropical climates where the temperature never drops low enough to harm a tree with the leaves still intact. An example of this type of tree could be the palm tree, which generally has no need to shed its leaves due to the warm climate it tends to live it.

Obviously there are leaves on plants other than trees, but do these plants generally go through the same process as trees?  Technically speaking, yes. Take a look at the mint leaves in this image. There isn't a tree that supports the mint

leaves and sheds them when winter is near, so how does the plant protect itself? During the winter, the mint plant, like many other plants, stops any of its procedures which require water and removes water from their cells to keep  those cells from bursting when the water freezes. It keeps itself in a stasis, much like trees do, throughout all of winter. Once the temperatures start to rise again, the plant will start up all of the processes that require water, and carry on the same cycle it had before winter had started.

So there's a few fun facts about leaves, and what they do for their respective plants. If you'd like to learn a few more fun facts about trees or plants, visit treespeak101.com. To read an interesting article on what you probably didn't  know about apple seeds, head on over to HubPages

Palm Trees

The first thought that likely comes to mind when we think of palm trees is vacation (Which is something I could definitely use right now), and for good reason. Most Palm trees are only located in tropical and warm climates such as Hawaii or the Bahamas ; the dream vacation spots of thousands upon thousands of individuals. Thus, the palm tree is associated with vacationing and relaxation. But aside from the obvious, here's a few interesting facts about palm trees that you likely didn't know.

Palm tree roots are very unique in comparison to your average tree. The roots are much thinner than that of an oak tree, but there's a ridiculous amount of these tiny roots stepping below the palm tree.

If you were to try and dig a hole next to a palm tree, it's unlikely you would succeed since the roots are packed so tightly together. Essentially, the roots, although they are much thinner than the average root system, are impenetrable. Have you ever seen an uprooted palm tree? No? That's alright, not too many people have. The root system of the palm tree allows the tree to withstand hurricanes, tornadoes,  and floods without toppling over. This is also why the palm tree is one of the most popular types of trees in tropical areas, since it can withstand the many tropical storms thrown their way. If a tropical storm somehow hit a forest of pine trees,  there wouldn't be many surviving trees (if any).

Now that we've gotten that rooted into our minds (pun intended), lets discuss the remarkable age of some types of palm trees. The most remarkable palm tree in regards to life span is the Canary Island Palm, which can live up to 120 years old! It's really not too hard to believe once you take into consideration the rooting structure of the palm tree discussed earlier. The roots of a tree are essential to the life of the tree, so if the tree has good roots, it will probably have a healthy life, such as a lifespan of 120 years. On the other end of the spectrum, however, there are certain types of palm trees than can have a very short lifespan, such as the Bamboo Palm which only lives about 4 years. The Bamboo palm is different than most other types of palm trees though, and doesn't nearly have the same type of root system as the types I was referring to when discussing the crazy root system of palm trees. But whether it's long or short, it's remarkable how large of a gap there is between the lifespan of these different types of palm trees.

There are probably a few more things that could be discussed on palm trees, but for now we'll leave it at those two incredible facts. For more interesting information on trees and such, you can visit treespeak101.com. For a direct link to an interesting article about what you probably don't know about apple seeds, check out http://lmoyer92.hubpages.com/hub/The-Apple-Seed. Thanks for reading!