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Shedding an outer shell can reveal a different side of a person. And we “change into something more comfortable” for relaxation. This trend in human behavior comes in the opposite season from a similar botanical tendency. We tend to minimize our clothing in the heat of summer to mitigate the effects of heat on our bodies.
In the plant world winter becomes a retreat from the often frantic activity of spring and summer, a time of respite for a green world turned brown, the usual dull color of deciduous leaves in Texas. Hurrah for fall’s brilliant exceptions, though, in various limited localities around our great state!
If I’m getting too metaphorical, maybe plant lovers can forgive me, since we savor the beauty that green things bestow upon us. Because of that, we sometimes attribute a form of personality to the forbs/shrubs/trees around us.
Most of us Texans see very little of the white wonders of winter further north. (Exceptions: the Panhandle and the Trans-Pecos, where only a small fraction of the state’s population lives.) For us further-south and lower-altitude Texans, lots of our trees and shrubs stay green year round. Most of the rest avoid showing off flashy gold or fiery red, instead turning the general hue of dirt, then bare. That makes winter boring for some, but that need not be.
Granted, winter is the main time, but not the only time, when trees strip themselves bare. Some, like our native Texas buckeyes (Aesculus glabra var. arguta and Aesculus pavia) drop their leaves by mid-summer to escape the desiccation of severe heat. That tendency is dangerous to their health, since things that look dead in the summer tend to get chopped down or mowed. Moreover, annual forbs often die out in late spring after leaving their seed to repropagate the species; their starkly poignant brown skeletons often punctuate the landscape long into the winter months.
Like sleep in the zoological realm, winter dormancy among plants is not fully understood. Both undoubtedly serve some function of rejuvenation. In any case, falling leaves are generally a phenomenon of the temperate and sub-arctic zones. Even there, most conifers, and some other species, buck the trend of shedding their foliage. And south of San Antonio, where my wife and I live, the botanical landscape changes very little from season to season as subtropical vegetation takes over. But, for most Texans, we can easily detect when winter has settled in for a few months, or weeks.
In enjoying the singular beauty of winter, consider the element of design in living things. The lack of straight lines stands out as a clear feature of the natural, as opposed to man-made, world. (A few notable exceptions are the lines of lakes, seas, and oceans on the horizon and the strands of spider webs.) Thus, winter grants astute observers the opportunity to appreciate the patterns created by leafless branches.
Moreover, views from wooded hilltops and ridges open up once leaves have started to make themselves into mulch on the ground. Abandoned nests and wintering-over birds also suddenly reappear from their hiding places in branches high and low. And can we also admire the intricate abstract patterns of bark, one of the main identifying features of trees and shrubs? Oh, yeah, that harbinger of Christmas but always pesky semi-parasite, mistletoe (Phoradendron tomentosum) also reappears, clinging to its stolen perches, daring us to come up and try to eradicate it.
Then a few plants save their best colors for fall and winter. Possumhaw (Ilex decidua) sports bright red berries, and American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) fruits out into vibrant purple.
OK, I’ll admit that winter is not my favorite season. But plant enthusiasts can still enjoy the wonder of nature revealing some of its hidden beauty and preparing itself for another rebirth of profuse greenery to refresh the landscape once again. It’s also a good time to prune branches, as harmful insects and pathogens generally go dormant, too.
And who knows when we might get one of those rare surprises. Sometimes, even in the southernmost regions of Texas, winter takes a break from its harsher self and dresses branches, both naked and green, with temporary finery of purest, shimmering white. But wait, spring comes early where most of us live! So we don’t have to amuse ourselves too long with those patterns of bare branches.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: chizum1
