Gardeners/botanists, what does it mean when the leaves don't fall

[UTUSN]

This is the first year the first dropped leaves didn't start in late September. By this time, in the years I've felt like putting up lights the tree I do it on has been totally bare and ready.

There has been next to nothing rain for a year and a half. So what is the biochemistry going on? The leaves are green. What is the tree body doing, continuing the summer?

Plus, there have been only a couple of chilly days, so? ---no winter?

[warrior1]

1. where do you live

and what kind of trees?

[UTUSN]

2. Well, fair question, but on the weather maps just think of where it hasn't rained

And the trees are just generic. Not trying to be snarky, it's just the internets thing, you know.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

3. i think that the night time temperatures

have to consistently low for a while for the tree to get the message that it is time to drop it's leaves.

[freshwest]

4. That's it.

[UTUSN]

5. Thanks, all three. n/t

[HopeHoops]

6. It could mean you have a pin oak.

They shed in the spring.

[Kali]

7. some plants respond to low light and others to low temperatures

some do respond to moisture but not too many landscape plants and the response to low moisture it to drop leaves not retain them

I'm at 4500 feet in Cochise County (SE AZ) still have leaves on most trees, the cottonwoods are yellow and dropping now, my apricot is almost bare, pecans are yellow green and most leaves still on but close to dropping, ash are yellow orange and same

mesquites are drying as they kind of stay a greenish color and shed for months

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. Leaf shedding has mainly to do with the length of days.

And different kinds of trees shed their leaves at different times. My apple trees still have most of their leaves but the pear and the crabapple have shed them all. The catalpa tree's leaves never even changed color, but one day they all fell off at once (that's what catalpas do). Oak leaves dry up but usually don't fall off until spring.

[UTUSN]

9. Well, I'm comparing my trees to their own performances in other years,

which is why I'm wondering what it says about this winter and what these tree "bodies" are doing, the differences in this year's weather from the previous years.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

10. The only other thing I can think of that might have an effect is rainfall.

But a drought is likely to cause earlier leaf drop rather than later - so I don't know what's going on. What kind of trees are they?