{"id":620,"date":"2026-06-15T15:41:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/?p=620"},"modified":"2026-06-15T15:41:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T21:41:58","slug":"why-some-leaves-dont-drop-in-the-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/2026\/06\/15\/why-some-leaves-dont-drop-in-the-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Some Leaves Don\u2019t Drop in the Fall"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group c-breadcrumbs alignfull is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\" style=\"margin-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40);margin-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--40)\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><nav aria-label=\"breadcrumbs\" class=\"rank-math-breadcrumb\"><p><span class=\"last\">Home<\/span><\/p><\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-layout-constrained wp-container-core-group-is-layout-0706528e wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"padding-top:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60);padding-bottom:var(--wp--preset--spacing--60)\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why Some Leaves Don\u2019t Drop in the Fall<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p><em>By Judy Kunz, Colorado Master Gardener<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most deciduous trees lose their leaves in autumn. The word deciduous comes from the Latin word \u201c<em>decider,<\/em>\u201d which means to fall down. Signaled by shorter days and a subsequent drop in temperature, trees stop making chlorophyll, the chemical that gives leaves a green color and provides energy for the plant. As a result, an abscission layer forms between the leaf stem (petiole) and the branch. This cuts off water and nutrients to the leaves, and they react by drying out and eventually falling off the tree. The leaves are no longer of use to the tree as the tree enters dormancy for the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, some trees such as oak, beech, witch hazel and hornbeam don\u2019t completely form an abscission layer in the fall. They hold on to most of their leaves until the leaves succumb to wind, and eventually drop, or remain in place until the following spring when new, emerging buds push them out. This phenomenon is referred to as marcescence, which is rooted in the Latin word&nbsp;<em>\u201cmarcescere,\u201d<\/em>&nbsp;meaning&nbsp;<em>\u201cto fade.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why Some Leaves Don\u2019t Drop in the Fall By Judy Kunz, Colorado Master Gardener Most deciduous trees lose their leaves in autumn. The word deciduous comes from&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","pp_post_mime_type":"","acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/49\/2026\/04\/cropped-cropped-extension-csu-favicon.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":621,"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620\/revisions\/621"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.colostate.edu\/arapahoe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}