Deciduous

What does this mean when they say the plant is Deciduous?

It means that the plant loses it's leaves in winter. If they keep the leaves they are evergreens.   

Kathy is right of course.

Trees/plants are either decidous or coniferous. As Kathy says, decidious trees/plants shed their leaves in autumn. 

Coniferous trees/plants on the other hand keep theirs all the year round.

Strictly speaking conifers drop their leaves/needles all year round, just not all at once. If you live next door to a row of them you can never completely get rid of them ;- )

Oh i see - thank you very much.

And yes the dreaded the conifers and the mess they leave behind after a strong wind.

David K they are not necessarily coniferous, rather evergreen.

As  I understand it:

Coniferous trees bear cones as seed pods.

Deciduous trees have leaves and shed them in the autumn.

Coniferous trees have needles, but  never completely shed them. Deciduous trees shed all their leaves and grow new ones in spring.

Coniferous trees stay green all year round and are known as evergreens.

Softwood comes from coniferous trees.....hardwood comes from deciduous trees.

Crikey, haven't done this since I was at school....and you don't wan't to know how long ago that was.

What about the faraway tree,the money tree,the family tree and and shoe-trees?

And then there's larches - deciduous conifers 

I live but a couple of miles from Armitage Shanks....so lots of trees hereabouts. 

What about evergreens such as Holly (berries), Rhodies, Laurel, Bay, etc, etc. ?

Not a cone between them.

To be technically correct the opposite of deciduous is evergreen not coniferous.

You're quite right, Welshonion, although I really only wanted to point out the opposing differences appertaining to the two different types of tree.

Cia I bet you wish you didnt ask... ha ha

I am a little confused...

I was reading up on deciduous trees & shrubs and have noticed that buxus and budleija are listed as deciduous yet they keep their leaves. Is this information wrong or am I missing something?

Only deciduous box I've seen was dead.

I'd call buddleia semi evergreen. It's not in full leaf in winter like it is in summer

Thanks Nut & Verdun