Jeff Caplan’s Minute of News: Dead Leaves? AGAIN?!?
Mar 27, 2025, 8:00 AM
Alexander Marten, 14, volunteers to clean up the fall leaves at Mount Ogden Park in Ogden on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018. (Qiling Wang/Deseret News)
(Qiling Wang/Deseret News)
Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.
SALT LAKE CITY — Do you have trees that never shed their leaves last fall? It’s called fall—but they didn’t. At least at my house.
So what happens now that the trees are about to explode with buds and color and leaves? Do we get stuck with last year’s brown leaves hangin’ around like grandpa rocking back and forth in the wind as the itty bitty baby leaves bud? Will our trees be overpopulated by all this growth, old and new? I mean, trees hanging onto their leaves all winter feels like a new thing around here to me.
I know, some of you have seen this before. But in my yard, in eight years, I’ve never seen this. Just about every tree still has crumpled, dead leaves hanging.
If you’re confused like me, do not freak out. Your tree is fine. The warm autumn we just experienced created marcescence. That’s an interruption of the process by which trees form an abscission layer of cells that cut off nutrients, causing them to wither and blow away.
This means that wind will whisk away the old leaves this spring, or the fresh buds will push the old growth out like throwing grandpa off a 5-story building. But the important part that you should know is that you might have to rake again this spring.
Jeff Caplan is the host of Jeff Caplan’s Afternoon News on KSL NewsRadio. Follow him on Facebook and X.
