Leaves with three leaflets and in which the terminal leaflet is stalked. In other words, this is a pinnately compound leaf with three leaflets. Evergreen vs. Deciduous One way that plants have become adapted to their climates is by either retaining their leaves year-round or shedding them as a difficult season approaches. In cold-winter temperate areas, for example, many plants drop their leaves in autumn because the loss of energy that went into creating the leaves and the loss of energy that might be manufactured by photosynthesis in winter is outweighed by even greater energy that would be needed to support the leaves during the cold months and the potential threat of leaf death due to freezing. In plants that retain most of their leaves year-round, even through difficult seasons, the leaves have acquired certain characteristics that enable them to survive the extremes.
Evergreen plants retain their leaves for more than one year.
This does not mean that the leaves are retained forever but rather that the plant is always green. Individual leaves of most evergreen plants are shed after a few years. Deciduous plants deliberately drop their leaves at the onset of a difficult season-winter in temperate and boreal areas and the dry season in desert areas of the world. The texture of the leaf is often an reflection of the duration of the leaf. Evergreen leaves are usually coriaceous, while deciduous leaves are usually membranaceous or chartaceous.