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Tenacious Beech Leaves

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Hello Gardeners, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. On my drive to Sumter, red maples proliferate in the river swamp but as I get closer to the Stateburg -Wedgefield intersection, low spots are filled with easily identified beech trees. Beech trees, Fagus grandifolia, want lots of moisture but not wet soils. They are extremely easy to spot in winter as they exhibit a condition called winter leaf marcescence. Although these trees are deciduous, the brown, dead leaves don’t fall off in the fall but remain on the trees throughout winter, finally being shed in spring. Normally, autumn leaves form an abscission layer at the bottom of the petiole and fall off promptly. A few trees --beech, some oaks, and witchhazel -- tend to hold onto those leaves, especially on lower branches when the trees are juvenile. Maybe it’s a kinship with Homo sapiens males –they shed their hair more easily as they age. 

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Amanda McNulty is a Clemson University Extension Horticulture agent and the host of South Carolina ETV’s Making It Grow! gardening program. She studied horticulture at Clemson University as a non-traditional student. “I’m so fortunate that my early attempts at getting a degree got side tracked as I’m a lot better at getting dirty in the garden than practicing diplomacy!” McNulty also studied at South Carolina State University and earned a graduate degree in teaching there.