Travelling in early autumn through the South Island of New Zealand, made me wonder whether the changing trees I see are native. Most trees with autumn leaf colors seem strikingly familiar to the ones in Europe — an almost unnatural contrast to the green natives here. I found that, indeed, very few natives lose their leaves, and the majority of New Zealand native trees are evergreen.
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| Eurasian aspen at Lake Tekapo Photo by Elleni Vendras |
Deciduous trees lose their leaves in preparation for a cold winter (or dry season in the tropics). They don’t photosynthesize over winter when there is not enough water or sunlight for this oxygen and glucose generating process. The chlorophyll in the leaves breaks down and the components move to the stem and branches of the tree.
What happens next is the reason why so many people travel to places like Wanaka, Mackenzie Country, Waitaki Valley, and Central Otago (and of course New England in the United States as the most popular place for autumn coloration). They take delight in watching the beautiful autumn coloration: carotenoids – yellow and orange pigments, become visible once all the green chlorophyll is gone. These light-absorbing pigments play a role in photosynthesis and act as a photoprotector for the chlorophyll. Another pigment anthocyanin is responsible for the red autumn coloration. It is produced from glucose during autumn and as a result, leaves from maple, aspens and many others turn into a beautiful red.
But, hold on. Why would a tree use energy in producing color pigments in leaves that eventually fall off and wither away? To please Homo sapiens? Certainly not. Scientists believe that these pretty pigments might keep the leaves alive longer by lowering the freezing point and protecting the chlorophyll from photo damage. In that way the leaves might stay longer at the tree and valuable components like glucose or nitrogen can get removed from them and be transported into branches and stem, rather than getting lost with the falling leaves. Others say that anthocyanin may prevent other plant species from growing where the leaves have fallen and decayed.
Besides the physiological meaning of autumn colors, Hamilton and Brown advanced in 2001 a hypothesis on the adaptive significance of autumn leaf colors. They proposed that the yellow and red colors in leafs are a signal of the defensive commitment against autumn colonizing aphid species. This theory aroused scientific argument and was refuted a year after publication by David Wilkinson and colleagues, including the Lincoln University-based author, Steven Wratten.
Another argument they made was that the changing of leaf colors are strongly environmentally regulated and not linked to insect colonization. Hamilton and Brown’s theory that bright autumn coloration serves as an honest signal of the trees defensive abilities does not convince the criticizing authors especially when it comes to the cost of honesty. This term which is often used in animal behavior research certainly can be used for plants as well. It describes that communication signals need to be costly to be honest and so honest signals have to be handicaps. Otherwise, there’s no reason not to cheat. But, in fact, there is no extra cost for a tree to reveal yellow leaf color.
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| Red anthocyanin in an leaf of trident maple (Acer buergerianum) Photo by Elleni Vendras |