Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Evergreen Trees, Deciduous Needles

One of the first trees to shed leaves in the fall is the white pine. Though it's an evergreen, it has as distinct and coordinated a dropping of leaves as any deciduous tree.
As deciduous trees begin to turn color, pines get into the act by turning a mottled brown and green,
as the 2-year old needles turn brown and fall off, leaving the 1 year old needles to remain through the winter and another growing season.
Other evergreen species have the same cycle.
Here's a spruce tree on Hamilton Ave. shedding older needles as a means of reducing the amount of living tissue exposed to the stresses of winter.

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