I have two beautiful ornamental cherry trees in my yard lining my driveway. Every year they are the first to bloom and the first to drop their leaves at the end of summer.I have no need to traipse into Washington, D.C. for the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival, I can look outside my window and get the same effect.
It's just barely September and still hot, hot, hot outside. My cherry trees are madly dropping their leaves like it is some kind of race. Now most deciduous trees drop their leaves to prepare for the oncoming winter and preserve the main trunk. Since it is still so stinkin' hot outside, what in the world are these trees preparing for? How do they know winter is coming? If it stayed warm year round, would they bother to shed their leaves?
I know we can quickly point to genetics, acclimation, biological clocks, or some such. But really, how does a tree know? If I were to design a tree, how would I go about that? How can I get this much reflection from a three-second glance at my trees as I back out of the driveway?
Sometimes I just sit back and marvel at the wonder of it all. God saw the world and all the things He had made and it was very good. I'm going to have to agree.
3 comments:
They go by sunlight. As the days gets shorter, the leaves start dropping. Even if you have a very warm winter, the buds won't start coming out until there is enough sunlight.
Learned that in Botany class. =]
Heather beat me to it! Well done! :)
Makes sense. Thanks Heather!
Still, you have to admit, it's a brilliant design.
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