The leaves of different woody plant species have distinct phenological patterns. Most species of Central European woody plants have winter-deciduous leaves, while a small proportion have evergreen (persistent-green) leaves. Semi-deciduous leaves are rare, occurring mainly in cultivated species. The category of winter semi-deciduous leaves includes only those leaves that are at least partly green in winter, but not marcescent leaves, which die in autumn and remain attached to the parent plant in a dry state through the winter (e.g. young individuals of Quercus).
Data on leaf deciduousness were compiled from Klotz et al. (2002), Tavşanoğlu & Pausas (2018), Chytrý et al. (2020), Štěpánková & Grulich (2020), floras of some other countries, and complemented by original observations.
Categories
- Evergreen
- Winter deciduous
- Winter semi-deciduous
- Drought semi-deciduous
Data source and citation
Axmanová, I. (2022). Leaf phenology. – www.FloraVeg.EU.
Further references
Chytrý M., Tichý L., Hennekens S.M., Knollová I., Janssen J.A.M., Rodwell J.S., … Schaminée J.H.J. (2020). EUNIS Habitat Classification: expert system, characteristic species combinations and distribution maps of European habitats. Applied Vegetation Science, 23(4), 648–675. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12519 – Version 2021-06-01: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4812736
Klotz, S., Kühn, I. & Durka, W. (2002). BIOLFLOR – Eine Datenbank zu biologisch-ökologischen Merkmalen der Gefäßpflanzen in Deutschland. Schriftenreihe für Vegetationskunde, 38, 1–334.
Štěpánková P. & Grulich V. (2020). Leaf deciduousness in woody plants. – www.pladias.cz.
Tavşanoğlu, Ç., & Pausas, J. (2018). A functional trait database for Mediterranean Basin plants. Scientific Data, 5, 180135. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.135