Well, it is now fall in the Northern hemishere. here in NE, I am contemplating the coming glories of the fall foliage, and groaning about raking and bagging all of those dead leaves!
Which prompts a question: what happens to a tree which is transplanted from NE to the tropics? Does it still drop its leaves in the fall? I heard once that trees drop their leaves in rsponse to the shortening daylight hours-so if the tree were brought to the equator, how would it know when to initiate the leave-dropping cycle? Finally, in california there are species of oak which remain green year-round (the “live” oaks). If I brought one of these to NE, would it begin to drop its leaves in the fall (like the local oak species)?
Moving a tree from a region where it cannot survive is well, tree murder.
Trees in Califronia probably can’t handle the NE of the USA unless a special group is bred to so. Maybe some are adapted to different regions, but if a tree is non-deciduous it won’t make it through a northern winter. Those regional jumps are too much.
Roots and soild temps are issues too. Palm trees take an occassional frost, but they can’t take the low soil temps of the NE, and they maintain foilage when cold comes, meaning instant death.
A tree can be flexible enought to go from say Georgia to New Jersey, but Georgia has a fall.
Trees drop leaves in response to temps (low air temp, lower soil temps), drought, and reduced daylight.
Better chance of getting some Northern trees adapted farther south, but life expectancy will be reduced.