{"id":812400,"date":"2026-10-24T12:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T12:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/812400\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T12:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T12:10:11","slug":"false-autumn-stressed-trees-drop-leaves-early-after-scorching-english-summer-autumn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/812400\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018False autumn\u2019: stressed trees drop leaves early after scorching English summer | Autumn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among a canvas of copper, red and purple autumn leaves on display at Wisley garden in Surrey<\/a>, south-east England, one tree stands conspicuously naked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe birch has lost all its leaves,\u201d says Guy Barter, the chief horticulturist at the Royal Horticultural Society. \u201cThat\u2019s the effect of drought, so it\u2019ll have no autumn colour this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where a burst of sunny yellow foliage would normally brighten the display, the birch can offer only its ivory-white bark. After the hottest summer on record<\/a>, the tree has dropped its canopy early, stressed from months of high temperatures and choosing to not lose any more water through its leaves.<\/p>\n

This is also known as a \u201cfalse autumn\u201d, where the stress of extreme summer conditions prompts trees and plants to behave as if the season has changed.<\/p>\n

Guy Barter, the chief horticulturalist at the RHS, at Wisley garden. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The birch illustrates how extreme weather driven by the climate crisis is reshaping the flow of the UK\u2019s seasons. Thousands of plant varieties at Wisley are still displaying vibrant hues, but the drought-sensitive, yellow-leafed trees such as birches, beeches and sycamores had shed their foliage by mid-October.<\/p>\n

Normally, autumn\u2019s effect on trees is triggered by shortening daylight, dropping night-time temperatures and adequate ground moisture brought on by rain. But severe summer heat and drought has disrupted this usual cycle by forcing stressed trees into early defoliation and premature colouring, resulting in a display that kicked in earlier than expected.<\/p>\n

The majority of England and Wales remains in drought, and six areas of England were declared in severe drought<\/a> this month with river and reservoir levels running low.<\/p>\n

Barter beside an oak tree \u2013 a species that has fared better than some during the extreme heat owing to its deep roots. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Unlike deep-rooted species such as oaks, trees with shallow root systems are unable to tap into deeper groundwater, making them vulnerable to leaf drop when surface soil dries out during a drought. \u201cBirch, beech and sycamore have been among the trees worst affected,\u201d says Barter. \u201cIt\u2019s at least as colourful as it is most years, but some of the trees are not giving their best, so it\u2019s not the perfect autumn colour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The RHS expects an earlier autumn colour peak in drought-hit areas, with intense but potentially fleeting displays. Reds, ambers and purples could stand out as some trees normally prized for yellow foliage lose their leaves.<\/p>\n

Tim Upson, the director of gardens and horticulture at the RHS, says the colour peak historically comes toward the end of October, but this year\u2019s drought has brought some trees into colour earlier. \u201cQuite often now it\u2019s going into November when you get that crescendo,\u201d he says. \u201cSo for me, this is quite unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Storm Austen <\/a>blows in, the Met Office has warned of strong winds that could damage buildings and bring down trees. Experts warned in September<\/a> that high winds brought by El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> could decimate already drought-weakened trees.<\/p>\n

Although shallow-rooted and yellow-leaved trees are struggling, other species remain vibrant, including the biggest liquidambar tree in the UK with its flutter of pink, red and purple leaves. Barter says gardeners here are likely to plant fewer birches and more \u201ctrees of the future\u201d such as liquidambar going forward.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere are different scenarios under climate change,\u201d he says. \u201cThe generally accepted one is that we\u2019ll have milder, wetter winters, but we\u2019ll still have the occasional really cold one. So it\u2019s no good planting tender trees, because when we have a really cold winter, they\u2019ll succumb.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking for trees that are completely hardy in cold winters and have also got deep, wide-ranging roots that can tolerate hot, dry summers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lists Lebanon cedars and swamp cypresses as trees that Wisley will plant more of to adapt to changing conditions.<\/p>\n

Visitors photograph the vibrant autumn displays. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Upson says adaptation is nothing new at Wisley; it was happening when he started working in horticulture 40 years ago. \u201cThere are some wonderful Californian oaks and Mediterranean oaks which we planted as an experiment 30 years ago, and they\u2019re thriving now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Familiar species will still have a place as temperatures change, he says, but beech and birch could become less spotted, surviving better in sheltered or damper locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what will happen is that we won\u2019t necessarily lose plants, but they will either become shorter-lived or they won\u2019t grow in the most exposed and stressful situations,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be very much a changing landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among a canvas of copper, red and purple autumn leaves on display at Wisley garden in Surrey, south-east…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-812400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}