The word deciduous comes from the Latin word ‘’decidere’’ which means ‘’to fall off’’ and is a botanical reference to plants that seasonally shed their leaves.

A deciduous plant sprouts new leaves during the spring, when the weather is becoming warm. The leaves then remain on the plant through the summer months and until the autumn, when the weather begins to cool.

The leaves drop and the plant goes into dormancy. Basically, going into a long sleep that lasts all through the cold winter months (just like hedgehogs and squirrels do), until the following spring, when they wake up and burst back into life for another annual cycle of the same events.