What Does Deciduous Mean?

Deciduous is a term most often applied to plants.  It refers to plants which lose all or part of their foliage at certain times of the year.  Most deciduous plants lose their leaves during cold temperatures in the winter.  Some, however, shed their leaves during times of less rainfall.
A benefit to deciduous plants is that they are able to retain moisture during the winter or exceptionally dry seasons better because water does not escape through the leaves. Most deciduous plants flower during the periods when they have lost their leaves. With the leaves gone, pollen can more easily circulate for pollination. Also, during leafless times, flowers are more exposed to pollinating insects.  

Evergreen is the converse of deciduous, and refers to those plants which retain their leaves year round. Deciduous also refers to biology. The term is used to describe animal's antlers which are shed. Deciduous teeth, commonly called 'baby teeth,' fall out at an early age.

Deciduous has its origin in Latin. It is derived from the word dēciduus which is taken from dēcidere. Dēcidere means to fall off. The dē in Dēcidere is taken for 'de' and cadere means to fall. Deciduous is use to describe something which does not last long. It is used to indicate the property of a baby's teeth. A baby tooth tends to fall of and is called deciduous tooth, also called primary tooth. Some animals shed their body parts. These parts are also described as deciduous. Example: antlers. The property to fall off is referred to as deciduousness.

In Botany, plants, trees and shrubs that drop all of their foliage during a particular time or season of the year are referred to as deciduous. This process is also known as abscission. Brief, fleeting, evanescent, ephemeral, momentary, passing, quick, changeable and short-lived are words that are synonymous to deciduous.

'Deciduous' usually means that the plant will lose leaves during its dormant season but the leaves will come back out when its growing season begins. In contrast, 'evergreen' plant keeps leaves all year around.

Deciduous fruits are classified as those having a seed enclosed in a heavy pit or stone, surrounded by soft flesh.

Deciduous fruits are available all year.

It means they drop their leaves in the Fall and winter...they go dormant and rest.

This term is usually referring to trees, which means the falling of leaves when they have matured enough, and usually relate to big trees that always loses their leaves at every season and of the shedding of the plant parts such as the carpels and petals after the flowering of the fruit when it is fully ripe. In simple terms, it means the dropping of the unnecessary parts of the plant when they are not needed, or when its purpose and uses as part of the plant has been fulfilled.

Deciduous plants are usually abundant during temperate and polar climates, mainly at the North and South America and part of Europe. Its converse is evergreen, meaning that there would be green foliage covering it all year round. The benefits of deciduous foliage is that it would better survive winter conditions, and on the other hand, increasing its capability to retain water quickly, without losing a huge amount of them through transpiration and other process.

These are fruits from trees that shed their leaves in winter..

It means that it is a plant that loses the leaves every year

Deciduous is: (of a tree or shrub) shedding its leaves annually. Often contrasted with evergreenor indicating the milk teeth of a mammal, which are shed after a time.