Trees Without Leaves Sometimes Scare Young Children

Becca hunched lower into her overcoat, trying to block out the sight of the trees. Feeling a slight shiver run up her spine, she looked back, searching the path behind her. Becca used to love walking the tree-covered path from the bus stop to her house.

Then the change had happened. It was gradual. In the spring she had stared in amazement at the hundreds of branches that made a canopy over her head. There were so many branches they almost blocked the sun. Then in the fall, the leaves had changed colors. She had loved to skip through the piles of leaves. But finally it had gotten cold; and there weren’t any pretty red, gold, and orange leaves anymore. In fact, there weren’t any leaves at all. The trees were barren, reaching for her, each time she passed them. She couldn’t help feeling watched every time she crept down the path.

Each day, she hurried a little faster. Becca realized this seemed silly, but she couldn’t help it.
As she crested the hill and saw home, she ran as fast as she could. Her grandmother, standing at the door, looked at her bright pink cheeks and listened to her rasping breath.

Her grandma sighed, “Running from the trees again?”

“Mmhmm,” Becca mumbled, feeling her cheeks getting a little redder.

“Oi, my little one, you can’t go running from things that scare you,” Grandma replied. Her grandmother paused a moment, waiting for an answer.

“I know.”

Sighing softly, she looked intently at her granddaughter, trying to think of the best way she could help the girl. “Come here”, her grandma said, patting the ground softly as she moved outside to sit on the ground. “I want to tell you a story.”
Kneeling, Becca smiled. She loved stories, especially the ones her grandmother told.

“All life follows a cycle,” her grandma began. “The trees are no different. In the beginning, a tree is just a little seed, like this one. She showed Becca a little tiny seedling. “It is often carried from a nut or flower which has been growing on a big tree. The nut or seed is picked up by a bird or other animal when they were eating or resting in the trees branches. Later the seed is dropped somewhere else and is pushed into the ground by the moving and digging of other animals. After a time, the seed will begin to grow into a sapling and when it is big enough it will sprout leaves.”

“Grandma,” said Becca, “I already knew that, but why do the trees get so creepy when it is cold? What happens to their leaves? Why do they always fall off, leaving the branches so ugly?”

Grandma held Becca’s hand and looked at her intently. “Becca,” she said, “the trees lose their leaves because that is how they grow, live, and survive.”

“How could the leaves dying help a tree to grow?” Becca asked, confused.

Her grandma looked her intently and replied, “During the spring and summer the leaves have been making lots of food. This takes place in many tiny living things in the leaf called cells. These cells contain a chemical called chlorophyll. That is what makes the leaves such a pretty green color. This chemical absorbs energy from sunlight. The chemical also draws carbon dioxide and water into the leaf. All of these chemicals together then become carbohydrates, which are sugars and starch that the tree uses for food. Some of this energy is stored for the winter.”

I”n the fall, the days become shorter and cooler, creating less daylight for the tree to use. The leaves stop making food. The chlorophyll, which is what makes the trees green, breaks down and the green color disappears. Other chemical changes take place; and the leaves begin to become their beautiful yellow, orange, and red colors.”

“Ohhh,” Becca said, “But why do they fall off?”

“In the winter, as it gets colder and the trees stop making food, some special cells develop that slowly sever the leaf’s support on the branch and it falls off. This happens so that new leaves can grow when it gets warm again. The process of the leaves dying is sort of like a bear that hibernates, or sleeps, all winter. The tree loses it leaves to conserve the energy it has built up over the spring.”

Becca couldn’t believe it. She looked around her at the giant trees in awe. The trees seemed to shimmer with life and activity. Becca smiled as she realized how beautiful the forest was. Even when the leaves died, the trees were still living and growing. Becca was never scared of trees without leaves, again, and she even began to explore the forest in the winter to find out what other amazing secrets the forest had.