Hacker News Reader

> all around us right now (if you live near leaf-dropping trees in a temporal zone), leaves are turning yellow and looking a little dry and crusty.

At first, I was like "Huh? Do they have NPR in Australia too?" and then I remembered to check the publication date.

Very clearly written, and easy to understand. I love articles like this.

View on HN

I was about to write that there are no native deciduous trees in Australia but I decided to double-check that fact first and it turns out I'm wrong:

http://anpsa.org.au/faq-18.html

there are a couple of varieties of deciduous trees in Australia, but rather than being cold-hardened they live only in the tropics (!) and lose their leaves shortly before the wet season starts and grow them almost immediately afterwards.

I'm really not sure why these guys are deciduous though. Is it just random evolutionary happenstance (as in, they evolved from cold-weather deciduous trees and haven't been able to shake off this particular habit) or is there some tropics-related reason to shed your leaves?

There are plenty of non-native deciduous trees in Australian cities and suburbs too.

Many tropical trees are "drought deciduous." Trees are always losing moisture through their leaves. By dropping their leaves when the soil becomes dry, they can better survive the dry season.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com