The Marcescence of Beech

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Marcescence is the term for when a tree holds on to withered leaves through the winter, only dropping them in the spring.  

Why do some trees do that?  Basically, the withered leaves hide developing buds from  nibbling deer.

In my little forest, it’s the beech trees that hold their leaves through the cold.  I’ve got a lot of oaks too, but my oaks are almost all 80-foot trees, and typically it’s only the young sapling oaks that hold withered leaves through the winter.