Which coniferous tree sheds its leaves in autumn. Is it true that coniferous trees shed their needles for the winter? She sheds her needles for the winter

Coniferous trees with needles falling for the winter

With the word "coniferous" we have the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bsuch trees that always remain green, like spruce or pine. Indeed, almost all conifers are evergreen. However, there are exceptions to this rule. What kind of conifers shed their needles for the winter? Ask this question to someone who is not too experienced in botany, and you will get the answer: "larch". This is correct, but only in part. Indeed, larch turns yellow in autumn, and then completely sheds its soft needles, that is, it behaves like our northern deciduous trees(hence its name).

But is this tree alone shedding needles for the winter? Are there any other conifers that behave in a similar way? A person unfamiliar with botany will not answer these questions. Meanwhile, among conifers there are deciduous trees and except larch. Some of them can be seen in the Batumi Botanical Garden.

Here is the first one. In winter, it is very similar in appearance to larch. However, a careful eye will notice that there is not a single cone on the tree. Under the tree, there are a lot of some kind of rhombic slightly thickened woody plates. Here you can also find winged seeds, reminiscent of pine and spruce seeds, only somewhat larger. It is easy to guess that rhombic plates are nothing more than scales of cones that have fallen from a tree. Consequently, the cones crumble when ripe, like a real cedar. And if so, then this is not a larch (her cones never crumble and hang “whole” on the branches for a long time). Before us is a completely different plant - the false Kaempfer larch (Pseudolarix kaempferi). The area of ​​​​its natural distribution is the mountains of East China. There she grows coniferous forests at an altitude of 900-1200 m above sea level. In culture, false larch is valued as an ornamental tree because of its beautiful needles.

The second deciduous coniferous tree is two-row taxodium, or swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum). His homeland is North America. The tree is named swamp cypress because it often grows in swamps. It is also called cypress not by chance: its spherical cones resemble the cones of a real cypress. But if the cones of an ordinary cypress are very strong and it is difficult to break them with a hand, then the swamp cypress has completely different cones. It is worth picking up a mature cone from the ground and squeezing it a little in your hand, as it crumbles into pieces.

Swamp cypress has a rare ability to develop special respiratory roots, the so-called pneumatophores. Unlike ordinary roots, they grow upward, rising above the ground. Appearance they are very peculiar - thick, woody processes of a bizarre shape, similar either to skittles or to some kind of knotty bottles. Respiratory roots are composed of very light, porous wood, although quite strong; a channel runs inside. They are vital for the plant importance. Through these processes, air penetrates to the root system of the tree, hidden in the marsh soil. And the soil of swamps is very unfavorable for plant life due to excess water and lack of oxygen. If there were no special pneumatophores, the tree could die. Respiratory roots grow from thick horizontal roots spreading from the trunk in different directions.

Thanks to the respiratory roots, the swamp cypress can grow in areas that are covered with water for several weeks or even months. Under these conditions, vertical roots grow to a height at which they are above the surface of the water. Their maximum height reaches 3 m.

In the Batumi Botanical Garden, well-pronounced respiratory roots can be seen in one of the large trees of the swamp cypress, growing in a very damp place (Fig. 20). Other specimens located in drier areas do not form such roots.

At the swamp cypress, the phenomenon of branching, already familiar to us, is observed - in the fall, whole branches fall along with the needles. True, this does not happen with all branches. Some of them remain on the tree, only needles fall off them.

The geographical distribution of swamp cypress is interesting. Currently, it grows wild only in the southeast. North America. But before it was widely used in the globe and including in Europe, where fossil remains of this plant are often found. The swamp cypress is one of the most valuable timber trees in North America and is heavily logged. Its wood is an excellent construction and ornamental material; it remains in the soil for a long time.

The foliage of the swamp cypress is beautiful, light green, lacy. This tree is often cultivated for decorative purposes on highly moist soils, along the banks of water bodies where other tree species cannot grow.

The third deciduous conifer is the famous metasequoia (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). It is a tree in the truest sense of the word "animated fossil": it is, as it were, "raised from the dead." It was met only in a fossil state and was considered completely extinct. And suddenly on the 8th of 1941-1942. in one of the regions of China, scientists accidentally discovered a living, rather old metasequoia tree. A little later, in 1944, a whole grove was found. It turned out that the plant was by no means extinct. This discovery made a real sensation in the botanical world. Similar cases also occur among zoologists when they find animals that were considered to have long disappeared from the face of the Earth (for example, coelacanth fish).

It is clear that in the Batumi Botanical Garden, as in other gardens, you can see only young specimens of metasequoia, they are no more than 20-30 years old.

What is a metasequoia? This is a slender tree with a straight trunk and a cone-shaped crown that starts almost from the ground itself. In summer, the tree is very decorative - the crown has a beautiful pale green color. The needles are soft, and the individual needles are almost the same as those of the swamp cypress.

In winter, the metasequoia does not attract attention to itself - only bare branches. You look at it from afar - and you won’t even think that it’s coniferous tree species. Yes, you won't know right away. True, if you look at the ground, you can see that under the tree there are not leaves, but reddish dry needles. More precisely, whole branches with needles. Metasequoia, like swamp cypress, is a "branched" tree. IN winter time when there are no needles on the trees, the branches of both plants are quite similar. However, in metasequoia, thin young branches are arranged differently than in swamp cypress: they depart from thicker branches in pairs, one against the other.

In winter, you can also recognize a coniferous tree in a metasequoia by the cones that can be seen in some places among the branches. True, they are small and not very conspicuous. Outwardly, they resemble evergreen sequoia cones. This similarity is not surprising: both trees are fairly close relatives. As we already know, one of them grows in North America, and the other in South-East Asia. Again a familiar phenomenon - close relatives on different continents.

With the onset of autumn, most trees and shrubs shed their leaves in preparation for wintering. Before this process, a change in the color of the leaves is observed. But sometimes it happens that the leaves remain on the branches even when cold weather sets in. Let's find out together why this happens, what it can lead to and how to help the trees.

The role of leaves in the life of a tree

The most the main role foliage - shaping organic products. Flattened sheet plate perfectly absorbs sunlight. The cells of its tissue contain a large number of chloroplasts, in which photosynthesis takes place, as a result of which organic substances are formed.

Did you know? Throughout life, plants evaporate a large amount of moisture. For example, an adult birch loses up to 40 liters of water per day, and an Australian eucalyptus (the most tall tree in the world) evaporates more than 500 liters.

The leaves of the plant also remove water. Moisture enters them through a system of vessels that stretch from the rhizome. Inside the leaf plate, water moves between cells to depressions, through which it subsequently evaporates. Thus, there is a movement of the flow of mineral elements through the entire plant. Plants can adjust the intensity of moisture output on their own by closing and opening the stomata. If moisture needs to be preserved, the stomata close. Basically, this happens when the air is too dry and has a high temperature. Also, through the leaves, gas exchange occurs between plants and the atmosphere. Through their stomata, they obtain carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide) necessary for the production of organic matter, and release the oxygen produced during photosynthesis. By saturating the air with oxygen, plants support the vital activity of other living beings on Earth.

What trees shed their leaves for the winter

Leaf fall is a natural stage in the development of most plants. This is how nature intended, because in the naked state, the surface of evaporation of moisture is reduced, the risk of branch breakage, etc. is reduced.

Important! Leaf fall is a vital process, without which the plant can simply die.

At different types Trees dropping leaves takes place in different ways. But the following crops shed their leaves every year:

• poplar (begins to drop leaves at the end of September);
• Linden;
• bird cherry;
• birch;
• oak (leaf fall begins in early September);
• mountain ash (loses leaves in October);
• apple tree (one of the last fruit crops that shed their leaves - in early October);
• nut;
• maple (can stand with leaves until frost);

Did you know? In fact, conifers also drop needles. Only they do it not annually, but once every 2-4 years, gradually.

Reasons why leaves do not fall

Leaves that have not fallen in autumn indicate the incompleteness of the tree growth stage. This is typical for the most part for cultures of southern or Western European origin. They are not adapted to short summers and need a long and warm growing season. However, even winter-hardy crops can stay through the winter with green foliage.

This situation may arise in the following cases:

1. There was a glut of nitrogen-containing fertilizers. They stimulate the growth process.
2. A dry summer quickly gave way to a rainy cold autumn. In this case, frequent watering only exacerbates the situation.
3. The climate is not suitable for this variety. Perhaps the plant did not have time to fully complete the development phase.
4. Wrong cut. If this work is done illiterately and out of time, it can provoke the rapid development of new shoots and leaves.

Important! Diseased foliage negatively affects the condition of the whole plant, reduces yield and reduces resistance to pests.

How to help and what to do

Specialists and experienced gardeners know that even trees unprepared for wintering can be helped. First of all, it is necessary to develop resistance to frost. For this you need:

1. To sniff (remove) foliage. This process is carried out by running the palm of the hand along the branches from the bottom up, separating the dry and frail leaves. You can't force them to break.
2. Whitewash the central branches and trunk of the tree. This procedure must be performed before frost.
3. Create a rhizome thermal cushion. To do this, the first snow is trampled down, and a mixture of peat and sawdust is poured on top. The next fallen snow is also trampled down.
4. Limited feeding. In autumn and late summer, only potash-phosphorus fertilizers can be applied and the tree should not be overfed.

Coniferous trees with needles falling for the winter

With the word "coniferous" we have the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bsuch trees that always remain green, like spruce or pine. Indeed, almost all conifers are evergreen. However, there are exceptions to this rule. What kind of conifers shed their needles for the winter? Ask this question to someone who is not too experienced in botany, and you will get the answer: "larch". This is correct, but only in part. Indeed, larch turns yellow in autumn, and then completely sheds its soft needles, that is, it behaves like our northern deciduous trees (hence its name).

But is this tree alone shedding needles for the winter? Are there any other conifers that behave in a similar way? A person unfamiliar with botany will not answer these questions. Meanwhile, among the conifers there are deciduous trees, and in addition to larch. Some of them can be seen in the Batumi Botanical Garden.

Here is the first one. In winter, it is very similar in appearance to larch. However, a careful eye will notice that there is not a single cone on the tree. Under the tree, there are a lot of some kind of rhombic slightly thickened woody plates. Here you can also find winged seeds, reminiscent of pine and spruce seeds, only somewhat larger. It is easy to guess that rhombic plates are nothing more than scales of cones that have fallen from a tree. Consequently, the cones crumble when ripe, like a real cedar. And if so, then this is not a larch (her cones never crumble and hang “whole” on the branches for a long time). Before us is a completely different plant - the false Kaempfer larch (Pseudolarix kaempferi). The area of ​​​​its natural distribution is the mountains of East China. There it grows in coniferous forests at an altitude of 900-1200 m above sea level. In culture, false larch is valued as an ornamental tree because of its beautiful needles.

The second deciduous coniferous tree is two-row taxodium, or swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum). His homeland is North America. The tree is named swamp cypress because it often grows in swamps. It is also called cypress not by chance: its spherical cones resemble the cones of a real cypress. But if the cones of an ordinary cypress are very strong and it is difficult to break them with a hand, then the swamp cypress has completely different cones. It is worth picking up a mature cone from the ground and squeezing it a little in your hand, as it crumbles into pieces.

Swamp cypress has a rare ability to develop special respiratory roots, the so-called pneumatophores. Unlike ordinary roots, they grow upward, rising above the ground. Their appearance is very peculiar - thick, woody processes of a bizarre shape, similar either to skittles or to some kind of knotty bottles. Respiratory roots are composed of very light, porous wood, although quite strong; a channel runs inside. They are vital to the plant. Through these processes, air penetrates to the root system of the tree, hidden in the marsh soil. And the soil of swamps is very unfavorable for plant life due to excess water and lack of oxygen. If there were no special pneumatophores, the tree could die. Respiratory roots grow from thick horizontal roots spreading from the trunk in different directions.

Thanks to the respiratory roots, the swamp cypress can grow in areas that are covered with water for several weeks or even months. Under these conditions, vertical roots grow to a height at which they are above the surface of the water. Their maximum height reaches 3 m.

In the Batumi Botanical Garden, well-pronounced respiratory roots can be seen in one of the large trees of the swamp cypress, growing in a very damp place (Fig. 20). Other specimens located in drier areas do not form such roots.

At the swamp cypress, the phenomenon of branching, already familiar to us, is observed - in the fall, whole branches fall along with the needles. True, this does not happen with all branches. Some of them remain on the tree, only needles fall off them.

The geographical distribution of swamp cypress is interesting. It currently only grows wild in southeastern North America. But before it was widely distributed on the globe, including in Europe, where fossil remains of this plant are often found. The swamp cypress is one of the most valuable timber trees in North America and is heavily logged. Its wood is an excellent construction and ornamental material; it remains in the soil for a long time.

The foliage of the swamp cypress is beautiful, light green, lacy. This tree is often cultivated for decorative purposes on highly moist soils, along the banks of water bodies where other tree species cannot grow.

The third deciduous conifer is the famous metasequoia (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). It is a tree in the truest sense of the word "animated fossil": it is, as it were, "raised from the dead." It was met only in a fossil state and was considered completely extinct. And suddenly on the 8th of 1941-1942. in one of the regions of China, scientists accidentally discovered a living, rather old metasequoia tree. A little later, in 1944, a whole grove was found. It turned out that the plant was by no means extinct. This discovery made a real sensation in the botanical world. Similar cases also occur among zoologists when they find animals that were considered to have long disappeared from the face of the Earth (for example, coelacanth fish).

It is clear that in the Batumi Botanical Garden, as in other gardens, you can see only young specimens of metasequoia, they are no more than 20-30 years old.

What is a metasequoia? This is a slender tree with a straight trunk and a cone-shaped crown that starts almost from the ground itself. In summer, the tree is very decorative - the crown has a beautiful pale green color. The needles are soft, and the individual needles are almost the same as those of the swamp cypress.

In winter, the metasequoia does not attract attention to itself - only bare branches. You look at it from a distance - and you won’t even think that it is a coniferous tree species. Yes, you won't know right away. True, if you look at the ground, you can see that under the tree there are not leaves, but reddish dry needles. More precisely, whole branches with needles. Metasequoia, like swamp cypress, is a "branched" tree. In winter, when there are no needles on the trees, the branches of both plants are quite similar. However, in metasequoia, thin young branches are arranged differently than in swamp cypress: they depart from thicker branches in pairs, one against the other.

Coniferous trees, features of their wintering

When caring for conifers, it is important to remember that young specimens are sensitive to temperature fluctuations. This is due to the fact that the roots of the plant are located too close to the surface.

In the process of wintering, the needles do not crumble, providing the plant with water and protecting it from the cold. The wax coating of the needles helps the trees protect themselves from hypothermia and excess water loss. Thus, wax is a kind of protective film.

An adult tree retains a bright green color even with the onset of frost, when the basal areas are covered with a layer of ice. During this period, the additional is reduced to cutting off extra branches.

Which tree sheds needles for the winter

The characteristic features of these large trees include:

• Widespread in swamp regions of the United States from Texas and Florida to Delaware;
• It reaches a height of 35-45 m;
• Narrow and long leaves are arranged in several opposite rows and reach a length of 1.3-1.9 cm.

An interesting feature of the taxodium is the fact that regular excessive watering provokes the expansion of the lower part of the trunk. As a result - the development of pneumatophores, outgrowths that rise above the soil and water.

Common in swampy areas for additional fixation on the soil.

Dropping needles on winter period - salient feature some genera. One of the most common representatives of this group is larch.

Dropping needles helps larch to endure sharp cold snaps of the winter period as painlessly as possible.

More detailed information about larch and its cultivation - when watching the video: