Autumn colours never repeat themselves. Some years they dazzle, others they merely please, yet always they seem above the average. This season the woods and commons are blaze with bronze oaks, copper beeches, flashes of yellow, and the odd scarlet sentinel. Only the ash stands bare and grey, its leaves long gone. Even the bracken and brambles join the spectacle, lending the scene a grandeur touched by melancholy—the beauty of decline.
Folklore says that if you catch a falling leaf before it touches the ground, you will escape winter colds. A pleasant fancy, though I prefer my flu jab, however science tells another story. Leaves apparently now cling longer to the trees, not through magic but through climate change. Across Europe, Asia, and North America, warmer temperatures delay the fall. Extremes are upsetting the natural rhythm1Autumn leaves are staying green for longer in Britain – here’s why. The Conversation / Michael Lavelle / 12 Nov 2024. https://theconversation.com/autumn-leaves-are-staying-green-for-longer-in-britain-heres-why-243224.
In 2022, Britain’s then record heat and drought scorched trees into early dormancy, so that autumn seemed to arrive in midsummer. When rain returned, the warmth tricked them into a false spring. New shoots and blossoms appeared, only to be destroyed by December’s savage freeze, grimly dubbed the “Troll of Trondheim.” Exhausted by the effort, many trees suffered lasting harm.
This Autumn, if the leaves do again fall late, it may mean the trees are merely pacing themselves for winter. But if these fierce summer droughts become the norm, the future of Britain’s native deciduous woods may be in peril.
- 1Autumn leaves are staying green for longer in Britain – here’s why. The Conversation / Michael Lavelle / 12 Nov 2024. https://theconversation.com/autumn-leaves-are-staying-green-for-longer-in-britain-heres-why-243224
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