It’s that time of year for walking along forest trails, parks, streets, the backyard or anywhere in the leafy neighborhood that is Los Altos.
Who doesn’t enjoy kicking up piles of newly fallen foliage and hear the crunching, crackling sound made by dried leaves or the schhlurpp of the wet ones? Now that the leaves have left their branches, a question comes to mind: Where do they all go?
I assembled a focus group of foliage forensicists.
Dr. Leif Ericsson, PhD in fallen foliage
“At first, the falling leaves, often still bright with color, blanket the ground with a kaleidoscope of color that is as spectacular as when those same leaves were still at the top of the trees,” Ericsson said. “Let’s look at how the leaves were constructed in the first place. From the leaf formation last May, when unfolding from buds swelled by water and warm days, chlorophyll took carbon dioxide and water, and used carbon, oxygen and hydrogen to build more complex substances.”
“Leaves from the trees are decomposed on the ground by a gang of simple organisms. Bacteria, fungi, mites, nematodes, earthworms, insects and even small mammals see leaves as a bountiful buffet.”
“So, when you think of rotting leaves, think green. The leaves that fell this fall already are on their way to being the new leaves of next May.”
I can just hear my neighborhood trees talking to their branches “Hey Bud! Don’t look so sad, I’ll see you in the spring.”
Toro Hitachi, landscaping professional
Toro, can’t you use a rake to corral the leaves? Other than the obnoxious sound your blowers make, you seem to be relocating the leaves from the lawn to curb and then the street. What about those leaves that you don’t bag? If you bag them, where do they end up? Do they get blown somewhere else or end up in the mountains of mulch that are sold back to us at our favorite garden supply stores?
Dr. Windy West, aeronautical botanist
Do leaves have an internal GPS function? It seems like I could park in a desert and the whirly wonders still end up in my engine and the windshield wiper trough. Just when I think I’ve got them cleaned out they seem to have birthed a new bunch of crunch overnight.
How do they find the three inch wide gutters on every house in the hood? Leaves are much more accomplished dam builders than beavers. Show me a sewer drain and I’ll show you leaves with engineering degrees.
A few miscellaneous points for your after-dinner conversation on Los Altos leaves:
• Rain soaked leaves on the hood of your car won’t blow off until you hit 35 mph.
• Palm fronds laugh at leaf blowers.
• Trees can laugh when you slip and fall.
• Leaves really don’t like to become mulch.
• Leaves like to be placed in kid’s books.
• Was Ryan Leaf a quarterback during his brief NFL career?
Enjoy the colors!
Andy Dolich operates Dolich & Associates, a sports consultancy based in Los Altos.
