Editor:
In response to Steve Sandeen’s letter in response to Meg Wall-Wild’s piece (Mailbox, Oct. 12): I, too, was perplexed by Meg’s reference to Prairie Creek’s ancient “deciduous” conifers. I was prompted to do a little research.
“Deciduous” means “shed(ding) seasonally or at a certain stage of development.” It’s worth distinguishing between the two halves of this definition. We all notice redwoods shedding large quantities of leaves at this time of year, but does that mean the trees are deciduous? In botany, a plant is considered deciduous if all of its leaves are shed at a certain time, in response to changes in either temperature or precipitation. Obviously, this does not apply to coast redwoods and thus they are not deciduous. What coast redwoods do is known as “exchange of foliage,” the annual elimination of older leaves, especially those close to the trunk. Confusion may arise because the leaves themselves may be considered deciduous in the latter sense of the definition while the trees themselves are not. There are deciduous conifers, including the dawn redwood of China, but not in this part of the world.
Ken Burton, McKinleyville
This article appears in Ghosts on the Tracks.