Earth Almanac: January/February 2008

Winter’s Beacons

By definition, “deciduous” trees shed their foliage in autumn. But throughout most of the eastern half of our nation, a midwinter stroll though a mixed hardwood forest will confirm that a few species defy the rules. Among them is the Ameri-

can beech. The oval, serrated leaves have lost their chloro-

phyll, and as the low winter light passes through them, they glow like copper-sheathed lanterns. Two of the more plau-

sible explanations are 1) that because dry leaves are rela-

tively unpalatable to large browsers like deer and moose, they protect twigs, and 2) that because beeches grow in well-drained soil where water tends to leach out nutrients, the dead leaves that finally fall in spring provide a needed shot of fertilizer at the start of the growing season. Beeches produce small nuts relished by all manner of wildlife. And they have smooth bark that has long tempted graffitists. One specimen that fell in the 1930s and is now in the possession of the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky, bears this inscription: “D. Boone Kill A Bar 1803 Zois.”