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Grove of tall deciduous forest trees
Second-growth deciduous forest, Warren County, New Jersey, United States (June 2007)
Forest path flanked with young trees in autumn colors
Deciduous forest in autumn, Hesse, Germany
Group of bare trees on a snowy day
Deciduous forest in winter, Denmark

In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous (/dɪˈsɪdʒuəs/)[1] means "falling off at maturity"[2] and "tending to fall off",[3] in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, after flowering; and to the shedding of ripe fruit.

Generally, the term deciduous means "the dropping of a part that is no longer needed" and the "falling away [of a part] after its purpose is finished". In plants, it is the result of natural processes. "Deciduous" has a similar meaning when referring to animal parts, such as deciduous antlers in deer,[4] deciduous teeth (baby teeth) in some mammals (including humans); or decidua, the uterine lining that sheds off after birth.

Wood from deciduous trees is used in a variety of ways in several industries including lumber for furniture, construction and flooring (oak), ornamental, bowling pins and baseball bats (maple) and furniture, cabinets, plywood and paneling (birch).[relevant? ]


In botany and horticulture, deciduous plants, including trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials, are those that lose all of their leaves for part of the year.[5] This process is called abscission.[6] In some cases leaf loss coincides with winter—namely in temperate or polar climates.[7] In other parts of the world, including tropical, subtropical, and arid regions, plants lose their leaves during the dry season or other seasons, depending on variations in rainfall.

The converse of deciduous is evergreen, where foliage is shed on a different schedule from deciduous trees, therefore appearing to remain green year round.[8] Plants that are intermediate may be called semi-deciduous; they lose old foliage as new growth begins.[9] Other plants are semi-evergreen and lose their leaves before the next growing season, retaining some during winter or dry periods.[10] Some trees, including a few species of oak, have desiccated leaves that remain on the tree through winter; these dry persistent leaves are called marcescent leaves and are dropped in the spring as new growth begins.

Flowering branch of forsythia amid bare trees
Like a number of other deciduous plants, Forsythia flowers during the leafless season






Fallen leaves covering a patch of ground
Deciduous plants in mid- to high latitudes shed their leaves as temperatures drop in autumn.[15]


Deciduous woody plants[edit]


Periods of leaf fall often coincide with seasons: winter in the case of cool-climate plants or the dry-season in the case of tropical plants,[17] however there are no deciduous species among tree-like monocotyledonous plants, e.g. palms, yuccas, and dracaenas. The hydrangea hirta is a deciduous woody shrub found in Japan.






See also[edit]


  1. ^ "deciduous (adjective)". Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at
  2. ^ William Dwight Whitney; Century Dictionary. The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia: Dictionary. p. 1484.
  4. ^ Gause, John Taylor (1955). The Complete Word Hunter. A Crowell reference book. New York: Crowell. p. 465.
  5. ^ University of the Western Cape. "Trees that lose their leaves". Archived from the original on 25 March 2013.
  6. ^ Dr. Kim D. Coder; University of Georgia (1999). "Falling Tree Leaves: Leaf Abscission" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2013.
  7. ^ Science Daily. "Science Reference: Deciduous".
  8. ^ J. Robert Nuss; Pennsylvania State University (2007). "Evergreen Shrubs and Trees for Pennsylvania" (PDF).
  9. ^ "The Illinois - North Carolina Collaborative Environment for Botanical Resources: Openkey Project. Glossary of Botanical Terms. Page 22" (PDF). Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  11. ^ Lemon, P. C. (1961). "Forest ecology of ice storms". Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, Vol. 88, No. 1. 88 (21): 21. doi:10.2307/2482410. JSTOR 2482410.
  15. ^ Bonan, Gordon (2015). Ecological Climatology: Concepts and Applications. Cambridge University Press. p. 294. ISBN 9781316425190.

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