What is the importance of leaf fall in plant life? What gives the plant this phenomenon?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:43

What is the importance of leaf fall in plant life? Big. The leaves have done their job of providing the tree with nutrients throughout the spring and summer, and now they can go.

What is the importance of leaf fall in plant life? Important. If leaves remain on trees or bushes, they will cause their death.

What is the importance of leaf fall in plant life? Philosophical. The leaves are dying and making room for new shoots.

What is the importance of leaf fall in plant life? Aesthetic. Falling leaves are the most beautiful thing in the world of trees.

Autumn

The leaves of most shrubs and trees change color and fall off. They seem to compete in beauty. But in plants such as alder, young poplar, lilac, the leaves do not change color until frost and remain green. And they turn black in the first snow.

Some herbaceous representatives - pansies, wild radish, shepherd's purse, annual bluegrass - bloom until late autumn.

Periodic phenomena,such as flowering or leaf fall, in plants are caused by seasonal changes.

Winter

With the onset of autumn, all living things are preparing for winter. Plant life is also dying out. They are in a state of rest during the winter period - they do not grow, do not feed, do not live to the fullest, but exist. And with the onset of spring and the beginning of sap flow, the plants receive new strength and are reborn. Surviving a long period of dormancy is made possible thanks to the supply of nutrients, which are "taken care of" including the leaves. With the onset of cold weather, they become unnecessary for plants. Moreover, they can cause their death.

Leaves evaporate moisture in summer and could do it in winter (like clothes are dried in the cold). Thus, they would dehydrate the tree and it would be doomed. Leaf fall in plant life is vital. Protecting themselves from drying out and death, trees and shrubs shed dead parts even before the onset of cold weather.

Autumn leaves

Before falling off, they give nutrients to the plant. A cork forms at the base of the petiole of the leaf, and it dies. Then it separates from the branch under its own weight or from a gust of wind. The importance of leaf fall in plant life cannot be overestimated. Without it, a huge part of the flora would die, only coniferous and tropical specimens would remain.

Evergreens

They are characterized by a constant color of the leaves. This does not mean that they live forever. In evergreen crops, leaf fall allows plants to constantly renew themselves. They losedead parts throughout the growing season, like human hair. In evergreens, old leaves fall off. Younger ones remain in the same color.

Tropical evergreens are characterized by leaves that have a growing season of several years or months. Although there are also specimens that remain for a short time with bare trunks.

How long do leaves

Their life expectancy varies and can range from 14 days to 20 years. The leaves of perennial plants live much less than the root and stems. This is because they are very active and do not have the ability to update.

In evergreen plants of central Russia, such as spruce and pine, the needles fall off after 5-7 years for the first and after 2-4 years for the second.

The duration of leaf fall is also not the same. For birch, this period lasts about two months, and for linden, only two weeks are enough.

Why leaves change color

The fact that the tree is preparing for winter becomes clear from the change in color of the leaves. They are magnificent in their withering - yellow, red, brown, orange with various transitions and shades. It becomes sad when all this beauty flies around and covers the earth with a continuous carpet.

Leaf fall is a biological process that is inherent in the life and development of a plant. The intensity of all intracellular processes (photosynthesis, respiration) decreases, the content of nutrients decreases (ribonucleic acid,nitrogen and potassium compounds). Hydrolysis begins to prevail over the synthesis of substances, cells accumulate decay products (calcium oxalate). More valuable plastic and mineral compounds from the leaves go into the storerooms of the plant.

Most shrubs and trees turn crimson and yellow in autumn. Red shades are due to the accumulation of anthocyanin pigment in the cells, which reacts to acid and changes color to a purple hue. In an alkaline environment, it would turn bluish-blue.

The yellow color of leaves depends on pigments (carotene, xanthophyll) and cell sap (flavones). This is how, very prosaically, the beauty of the autumn forest is explained.

Fertilizer

The role of leaf fall in plant life is very significant. It protects the roots from freezing. The lush forest floor, due to its looseness and the presence of a large amount of air, reduces the thermal conductivity of the soil and prevents its deep freezing in winter.

In addition, it is quite moisture-intensive, which is important for plants. Fallen leaves serve as mulching material, protect the soil from erosion and prevent the formation of a crust. Rotten, they improve the structure of the soil and attract earthworms.

Fallen leaves are a valuable organic fertilizer containing phosphorus, potassium, calcium, nitrogenous substances and useful trace elements. Thus, favorable conditions for plants are created. Huge trees grow in the forests without any fertilizer application.

Fallen leaves in the garden

The modern gardener does not appreciate the peasant experience of the past. Heannually burns as much fertilizer and structural material as would be enough for both compost and mulching. Some gardeners do not save leaves out of ignorance, others are afraid of the spread of infections. But if you approach this issue wisely, then all their fears are in vain.

The fact is that pathogens die when the compost ripens and is processed by earthworms. Therefore, it is advisable to lay the leaves of fruit crops to obtain humus, and leave a he althy pillow from under birch, linden, chestnut, maple, etc. for mulching for the next summer period.

Shelter of this kind will be a salvation for valuable plants in snowless winters. For example, for strawberries, daffodils, new plantings.

In the spring, fallen dry leaves can be used to mulch plantings of peppers, eggplants and tomatoes in greenhouses and greenhouses. These crops require dry air and moist soil. A thick layer of dry leaves will create the necessary microclimate, become an obstacle to the growth of weeds, and all summer long will delight with the autumn landscape in a single greenhouse.

Early harvest

Valuable properties of leaf fall can be used for growing early crops of vegetables (cucumbers, potatoes, cabbage, zucchini, etc.) or for accelerated planting of strawberry bushes, flowers. Since autumn, they have been preparing shallow, bayonet spades, trenches. Then they are filled with he althy fallen leaves and spilled with a solution of slurry. Juicy cabbage leaves, tops of root crops, etc. are placed on top. In this form, trenches are left for the winter. The excavated earth is leftnear in the form of a comb.

During the winter, the contents of the trench will settle, be saturated with melt water and compact. The ground in the ridge under the bright sun will thaw and warm up faster. As soon as the soil allows, the roller is raked into the trench and early vegetables are planted. You can build a small film tunnel over young plants to protect them from frost.