... deciduous with an urge to be evergreen Nina

Well Doc, I like what Walter Pall has to say on the subject.
He says that
only in the US do we talk about deciduous and evergreen.
Everywhere else
they talk about conifers or needled trees vs. leafed trees. I
think this
definition helps us to realize that evergreens only appear that
way because
they bear one- and two-year-old needles over the winter.
Eventually they
lose the old needles too. So when we talk about ligustrum
having an "urge
to be evergreen", we really mean that they carry their last
year's leaves
( leathery tho' they may be) into the winter. This should help
explain the
phenomenon to your correspondent.
Marty P.S. Happy New Year!

I agree with a lot of what Walter says, but here he is wrong.
"Deciduous" is the correct botanical term (no matter where you
live) for trees that lose their leaves once a year, leaving their
branches bare. There are evergreen "leafed" trees just as there
are deciduous "needled" trees. And, "Needles" and "Leaves" are,
of course, both LEAVES.

NO tree keeps a leaf forever. Some "evergreens" lose leaves
continuously over the course of a year; pines may be the prime
example. Other evergreen "leafed" trees lose their leaves as the
new leaves appear -- giving the impression that they are always
in leaf. Here in the south, the live oak (Q, virginiana) is a
prime example; it loses its leaves over the course of 2-3 days
every spring. It is bare for such a short time that we call it
"evergreen," though it really isn't. Southern magnolia, some
holly and other broad-leafed trees are never bare, but drop
leaves all year long; they are true evergreens. Elm, maple,
sweetgum, etc. lose leaves in the fall and are bare all winter,
typical deciduous trees. The American beech's leaves die in the
fall, but the brown leaves cling to the branches all winter (I've
often wondered what the evolutionary "reason" was for this!),
dropping just before new buds swell and new leaves appear. A few
trees appear to be AC/DC in that in cold climes they'll lose
their leaves and in warm climes they will keep them -- or appear
to. Ligustrum chinensis and some of the Chinese elms appear to
be in this category.

There just is NO way to make such a distinction as Walter's, and
it certainly is scientifically inaccurate. Nature is infinitely
variable. Walter is one of the best bonsai stylists, but . . .
;-)

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL - Nature
encourages no looseness, pardons no errors. Ralph Waldo Emerson

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