Not bunk, but not an evolutionary strategy, I imagine. Leaves are dropped because they are too hard to maintain, rather than the benefit the trees get from mulching out competition.
Yes, but again, it don’t think it’s evolutionary strategy, rather than the content of the needles is what is needed, and the acidification is just a knock on effect. Pines in particular are disturbance specialists - they take off after fire, and drop relatively few needles during establishment when competition from grasses and other plants is at the highest. When they get larger they don’t have to worry (,as it were) because you can choke out anything below you just by being big
It is very interesting though to walk through a pine stand after walking through a stand of mixed hardwoods. There is almost no undergrowth. It’s a very different character.
I’m not directly aware of any trees that do that, but it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if that was true for at least one species.
Most trees that drop seeds have methods of getting them away from the parent tree. Maple trees have little helicopter twirlies, oak trees have animals carry them off, some trees grow new ones from their roots called suckers.
I’ll try to look it up later because now I’m curious. I’ll update here if I find anything interesting about trees dropping leaves to prevent new ones growing too close.
I don’t think my arborist textbook said anything about that specifically, but I’ll double check there first.
I read a while ago that trees attempt to reduce competition by dropping their leaves to prevent saplings growing too near. Was that all bunk?
Not bunk, but not an evolutionary strategy, I imagine. Leaves are dropped because they are too hard to maintain, rather than the benefit the trees get from mulching out competition.
Depends on the type of tree – pine trees do benefit from the acidification of soil via their dropped needles - it reduces competition.
Yes, but again, it don’t think it’s evolutionary strategy, rather than the content of the needles is what is needed, and the acidification is just a knock on effect. Pines in particular are disturbance specialists - they take off after fire, and drop relatively few needles during establishment when competition from grasses and other plants is at the highest. When they get larger they don’t have to worry (,as it were) because you can choke out anything below you just by being big
It is very interesting though to walk through a pine stand after walking through a stand of mixed hardwoods. There is almost no undergrowth. It’s a very different character.
Are boreal pines disturbance specialists too?
I’m not directly aware of any trees that do that, but it honestly wouldn’t surprise me if that was true for at least one species.
Most trees that drop seeds have methods of getting them away from the parent tree. Maple trees have little helicopter twirlies, oak trees have animals carry them off, some trees grow new ones from their roots called suckers.
I’ll try to look it up later because now I’m curious. I’ll update here if I find anything interesting about trees dropping leaves to prevent new ones growing too close.
I don’t think my arborist textbook said anything about that specifically, but I’ll double check there first.
Thanks!
Np! I couldn’t find any evidence that any species of tree use their leaves to prevent new ones from growing too close.
The lack of light, water, and nutrients would kill and new saplings all on its own.
That might be an old hypothesis that later got disproven, but most people don’t keep up on forestry sciences so that’s understandable!
appreciate it.