American Beech: Don’t Know When to Quit
Honesdale, PA. A day of bright sun at the Highlights Foundation at Boyds Mills, a wonderful writers’ retreat. Sunny and clear, but cold. Almost winter now. The leaves are all off the trees. The winter is coming, the branches are stark and bare. Or not. The leaves of these elegant gray trees just don’t know when it’s time to quit. American Beech, Fagus grandifolia. Why? Like most nature questions,this one has as many answers as there are websites. The trait of keeping leaves after they’re dead is called marcescence. (A word that is surely in the finals of all spelling-bees.)...
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