Deciduous
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Deciduous means "temporary" or "tending to fall off" (deriving from the Latin word decidere, to fall off) and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally. In a more specific sense deciduous means the dropping of a part that is no longer needed, or falling away after its use is finished. In plants it is the result of natural processes, in other fields the word has similar meaning, including deciduous antlers in deer or deciduous teeth in some mammals including human children.[1]
Deciduous trees
Deciduous trees include Maple, Oak (but not all species), Elm, Aspen, and Birch, among others, as well as a number of coniferous genera, such as Larch and Metasequoia. Periods of leaf fall often coincide with seasons: winter in the case of cool-climate plants or the dry-season in the case of tropical plants.[2]
Botany
In botany, deciduous plants, principally trees and shrubs, are those that lose all of their leaves for part of the year. This process is called abscission. In some cases, the leaf loss coincides with winter in temperate or polar climates, while others lose their leaves during the dry season in climates with seasonal variation in rainfall. The converse of deciduous is evergreen; plants that are intermediate may be called semi-deciduous.
Many deciduous plants flower during the period when they are leafless, as this increases the effectiveness of pollination. The absence of leaves improves wind transmission of pollen in the case of wind-pollinated plants, and increases the visibility of the flowers to insects in insect-pollinated plants. This strategy is not without risks, as the flowers can be damaged by frost, or in dry season areas, result in water stress on the plant. Nevertheless, by losing leaves in the cold winter days, plants can reduce water loss since most of the water would appear as ice, and there is much less branch and trunk breakage from glaze ice storms when leafless (Lemon 1961).
Regions
Deciduous forests can be found in sections of: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa (Madagascar). Forests with a majority of tree species that lose their foliage at the end of the typical growing season are called deciduous forests. These forests have distinctive ecosystems, understory growth, and soil dynamics. Two distinctive types of deciduous forest are found growing around the world.
Temperate deciduous forest biomes are plant communities distributed in America, Asia and Europe. The have formed under climatic conditions which have great seasonable temperature variability with growth occurring during warm summers and leaf drop in fall and dormancy during cold winters. These seasonally distinctive communities have diverse life forms that are impacted greatly by the seasonality of their climate, mainly temperature and precipitation rates. These varying and regionally different ecological conditions produce distinctive forest plant communities in different regions.
Tropical and semi tropical deciduous forest biomes have developed in response not to seasonal temperature variations but to seasonal rainfall patterns. During prolonged dry periods the foliage is dropped to conserve water and prevent death from drought.
See also
References
- Lemon, P. C. (1961). Forest ecology of ice storms. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 88: 21.