{"id":385262,"date":"2025-08-30T14:28:33","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T14:28:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/385262\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T14:28:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T14:28:33","slug":"what-britains-false-autumn-means-for-your-favourite-trees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/385262\/","title":{"rendered":"What Britain\u2019s \u2018false autumn\u2019 means for your favourite trees"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hazy afternoon sunlight filters through the leafy canopy, leaving the air sluggish and warm. It\u2019s a hot, still day and the wood is peaceful, the rumbling of nearby traffic muffled by vegetation. I watch the progress of a speckled wood butterfly as it totters slowly along the path towards me, following a thicket of brambles whose armoured stems are decorated with ripening blackberries.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sitting on a log, holding a yellowing leaf that was cast to the ground by one of the nearby trees. It\u2019s from a field maple; it has five softly rounded lobes that are splayed like chunky fingers around a palm. It\u2019s golden and buttery and has a few brown speckles here and there \u2014 a ripening banana skin in leaf form. <\/p>\n

But one thing is bothering me. It\u2019s August, not October. The air smells of warm grass, it\u2019s still light at 9pm and the blackbirds haven\u2019t started doing their wintry \u201cplinking\u201d calls yet. Autumn feels like a long way away \u2014 but the trees are already changing. <\/p>\n

\"Drought-stricken<\/p>\n

Wimbledon Common, south London. The UK is experiencing its warmest summer on record<\/p>\n

AMER GHAZZAL\/ALAMY<\/p>\n

Normally, trees drop their leaves in the winter to avoid damagingly cold temperatures, storing all their resources safely in their roots until the following year. But this time it\u2019s different. Here in the UK, we\u2019re experiencing our warmest summer on record<\/a>, and the combination of prolonged heat with below-average rain has initiated an ancient, evolutionary survival mechanism built into the DNA of deciduous trees. They aren\u2019t dropping their leaves because the season is changing, they\u2019re doing so because they\u2019re experiencing stress.<\/p>\n

Leaves are full of holes to allow carbon dioxide to enter, but in doing so water vapour can escape. When a tree is experiencing drought for a prolonged period of time, it\u2019s genetically programmed to shed its leaves prematurely, effectively blocking up the points at which water is escaping to conserve its supply. This results in a \u201cfalse autumn\u201d, a phenomenon whereby trees and plants start to behave as if the season has changed, even though it\u2019s still summer.<\/p>\n

Looking at trees around the country in your local parks and woodlands, it will be clear that some have been affected more than others. The oaks and ash \u2014 species with extensive root systems \u2014 still wear their deep, midsummer greens, while more shallow-rooted birches and beeches are yellowing. Some are already looking skeletal and bare. Young trees will be suffering more than older ones, too, unable to access water deeper in the soil without fully grown root systems.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Hardy native species include the sessile oak \u2026<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

\"Rowan\"Downy<\/p>\n

\u2026 the downy birch \u2026<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

\"Small-leaved<\/p>\n

\u2026 and the small-leaved lime<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

Trees can handle premature leaf drop from time to time, but when it happens more regularly<\/a> \u2014 as we\u2019re starting to experience with climate breakdown \u2014 we will probably see changes in the composition of trees in our streets, parks and woodlands as more drought-tolerant species such as common lime and holly persist in favour of those less able to cope, such as hornbeam and sycamore. <\/p>\n

Overall tree health might deteriorate as organisms in the soil \u2014 dependent on a steady supply of sugars from the trees through the summer \u2014 wane as leaves drop prematurely. Horse chestnuts \u2014 our beloved conker trees \u2014 might suffer more than most, already under pressure from a small leaf-mining moth that causes early browning and leaf fall. There will be knock-on effects for migrating birds such as chiffchaffs, willow warblers and house martins, too, which depend on the abundance of aphids and other insects associated with tree leaves.<\/p>\n

Sitting on my log, I look closely at the yellowing maple leaf. It\u2019s such a beautiful thing, really. Up close I see intricate patterns and colours telling a story of seasonal change. But deep down I feel the twinge of unease. There is beauty, yes, but I worry about what it means for the future. False autumns are becoming more frequent as trees struggle to keep up with the rapid pace of climate change. <\/p>\n

\"Oak<\/p>\n

Oak in the autumn<\/p>\n

MICHAEL ENGLAND\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n

Moving forward, we need to think about planting a diverse mix of native trees, including hardy species like pedunculate and sessile oaks, rowan, downy birch and small-leaved lime. In their own way, the trees are telling us that something is fundamentally wrong, and it\u2019s important now that we start listening.<\/p>\n

Leif Bersweden is the author of Where The Wild Flowers Grow<\/a>, published by Hodder & Stoughton<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hazy afternoon sunlight filters through the leafy canopy, leaving the air sluggish and warm. It\u2019s a hot, still…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":385263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-385262","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115118192452959387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/385263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}