The winter view of the woodland includes the colorful leaves of Fagus grandifolia.
When I posted this photo on Monday to highlight the flowering Hippeastrum, I couldn’t help but look beyond the windows to admire the parchment-like leaves of a group of young American beech trees (Fagus grandifolia), and the warm color they add to the mostly gray and brown winter landscape.
Smooth gray bark makes a beech tree easy to identify.
The native beech is common in our neighborhood and easy to spot any time of year because of its smooth gray bark, which is sometimes carved by lovebirds and others who want to make their mark. In fall, the tree’s green leaves turn yellow and then russet brown, but rather than falling, many cling tightly to their branches throughout the cold season, eventually fading to pale parchment and curling into cylinders that rattle against one another in the slightest breeze.
What accounts for the winter dress of the beech tree?
Most deciduous trees shed their leaves by producing an enzyme that creates an abscission layer between the leaf petiole and the tree branch. When the cell walls of this specialized layer disintegrate, the leaf easily detaches in a gust of wind or sprinkle of rain.
Beeches, however, belong to a group of trees that are marcescent [märˈses(ə)nt], meaning they hold on to all or most of their leaves until spring. Like some oaks and hornbeams, beeches either fail to form an abscission layer or delay its development, so leaves stay on the tree long after they become lifeless and dry.
A neighborhood oak with dull brown leaves on its lowest branches.
Marcescence is more common on younger trees and on the lower, more juvenile, portions of older trees. In my garden, this is particularly true of oaks, but these dull brown, crinkled leaves are a poor substitute for the beech’s tiers of lacy, warm-hued foliage.
No one really knows the purpose of marcescence, but there are theories. Some believe the unpalatable leaves keep tender buds and branches from being browsed by hungry herbivores like deer and moose. Others suggest the leaves provide protection from injury when conditions are especially dry or frigid.
Whatever the reason, I love the rich color the beech trees add to the winter landscape and the whispered conversations offered by their shimmering leaves when I walk among their branches. Surely they must be chatting about spring, and the many blue skies and warm days just ahead.
Hortitopia 
A friend always calls this the pink leaf season. It took me awhile to understand what she meant.
Hope to see you this coming Saturday. A friend and I got tickets for the symposium.
Pam–I like that description! Yes, barring an unexpected malady or crisis, I’ll be at the symposium on Saturday. I’ll keep an eye out for you.
I enjoyed the magic of your words in this post–especially the last sentence. Great information, too! Our back garden is full of Oaks, and each year is different in how many leaves remain on the trees until spring. Nature is so fascinating!
Beth–We had a very late fall and I think we actually have fewer leaves this year, especially on the older trees.
One of my favorite trees, I love the whispering leaves of winter when there is very little sound in our landscape.
Eliza–I’ve read that beech is one of the last species to establish in a woodland, a testament to the age of the trees here. You know, they don’t build neighborhoods like this anymore. Before the first house is built, all but a few trees are cut down. Even the top soil is sold.
I know, the practice makes me ill. When my sister lived in GA, I saw them destroy a woodland just like that and some were old growth trees. 😦
English Beech hang onto their leaves until spring if clipped as a hedge, if allowed to grow into a tree, they loose them in the autumn. Thanks for the explanation, I’ve never understood why until now!
Pauline–I think my husband and I are going to splurge on a trip to England in December this year. So, for the first time, I’ll have a chance to see those beech hedges in winter.
There are lots of beech all around us here too, so interesting to find out the science behind them keeping their leaves. And I always thought it was to keep them warm! 😉 Thanks Marian!
Cathy–That would be my guess too. I think the dried leaves protect the young branches and buds from winter wind and cold.
Oh I love the idea that they are chatting about the arrival of Spring
Dorris–Yes, me too! As we all are, or will be soon. I saw my first daffodil yesterday:^)
Lovely post Marian, I can imagine reaching out to touch the bark, as it looks so tactile. Our native beech is darker than yours but has the same habit in holding onto leaves and we have one in a nearby woods, where lovebirds carve their names too. Its very romantic.
Julie–I’ve been told many of the names on the tree shown above belong to children that grew up in this neighborhood. That’s sweet too, isn’t it…in the very best way.
We have a lot of white birch trees in NH, but you can’t really see them and appreciate their beautiful bark until winter. It is interesting how different the world looks from one season to the next. 🙂
Judy–I love the change of seasons. They can all be spectacular here, but unlike most gardeners, winter is my favorite and summer is the one I like least. But our short, mild winters, with just enough freezing weather to make them interesting, are fabulous, while summer heat and drought can seem to go on forever.
That is interesting. I’ll give you a little more of our winter if you’ll send me a little more of your summer? 🙂
The beech is a wonderful tree, especially in the winter. I have a large beech and several small ones. When my dad, a retired Forester, saw all of them, he called the younger ones “sons of a beech!”
Meta–Made me laugh! There are several small beeches here and I’m thrilled to have them, but think I’ll call them something else:^)
Thanks for introducing me to a new word (marcescent). You’ve reminded me of a large maple tree that Greg Grant noticed in the neighbourhood when he came to visit us a couple of years ago. That year the leaves had exceptional fall colours, but that seems to have been a one off. This year the colours were normal but it has held on to its leaves. Perhaps it just likes to ring the changes!
Susan–I’ve learned most of what I know about trees from being a naturalist, rather than a gardener. Gardeners, I think, tend to look at large trees as just “background,” unless, of course, they work on the scale of Capability Brown.
I have always had a tendency to ignore the green stuff (=shrubs) but my Dad taught me to like trees. I enjoy the variety you have in different parts of the US.
We have a Witch Hazel which keeps hold of its dead brown leaves through untill spring when the flowers appear. I have to remove them so that we can see the flowers. Now I know what it is called.
Brian–Good reminder. I’ve seen that before but had forgotten. All the cultivars I’ve grown shed their leaves.
A delightfully written post Marian. Informative too. I think the marcescence must be either temperature of light triggered too. I say this because deciduous oaks in England always lose their leaves whereas the same varieties here in Italy keep their all winter just like your beech and oaks. I love beech hedges with their golden brown coat in winter but prefer seeing bare branches of the oaks but that maybe because it is what I’m used to.
Christina–As much as I love the beech trees, I’m glad most of the leaves come down for the winter months. Sometimes I feel absolutely light starved under the cloak of all these towering trees.
I love the sound of snow falling on beech leaves. Your photo of the initials on the bark brought back memories of waiting at the bus stop when I was growing up. We waited for the bus at the end of our road, which had a stand of youngish beeches and a wooden box holding newspapers to be delivered. The newspaper box had thin wires that held the paper bundles together and we used those to carve on the beeches. You have inspired me to stop the next time I am there to see if any beeches remain and, if so, what is left of our tree tattoos.
Brenday–I love your story about the bus stop. A neighbor has told me many of the markings on the tree I photographed were made by neighborhood children.
I remember looking at trees in winter in England & wondering why some of them still had dead leaves on the branches even at the end of winter… So that is marcescence
Like you I prefer winter to summer, here is Australia summer can be debilitating & just a matter of keeping plants & trees alive.
Geraldine–We had a terrible drought here in South Carolina last summer. I had no measurable rain from late May to mid August and July was a scorcher.
So much interesting information in this post, to go along with the poetic prose.