The moisture buildup, warmth, and lack of airflow kills the grass. Basically starts a mini-compost pile. Look up what happens when you cover soil with cardboard sheets.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheet_mulching](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheet_mulching)
I don’t agree with other comments here about leaves being acidic or lack of nitrogen in the leaves. It’s not like grass will die without a steady stream of organic N being fed to it, and composting leaves typically don’t have any substantial effect on soil pH (and the top leaves don’t decompose fast enough to have any effect at all).
leave block more light than snow. snow lets a surprising amount of energy though mostly because un-compacted snow is very low density in made of transparent material ie ice and water, for instance if you get snow on solar panels the panels can still make some energy not much but there is enough light to also heat up the glass so snow falls off.
to make a long reply short the grass can still photosynthesize and its cold so it needs less light anyway
the composting process also hits non-dead things. imagine being covered in guts and gore and the bodies of a thousand fallen men, women and children, trying to survive for days and weeks on end without the slightest bit of air, fresh water or sunlight. all you can do is try and live from the corpsebile oozing down towards you.
exactly. i’d be more surprised if they DIDNT die, tbh
snow/winter makes plants hibernate and if that work for animals, then it cant be that hard for plants either, right?
Couple things at play here. In winter the grass is dorment so it is not trying to grow or absorb any nutrients. It doesn’t NEED the sun in winter. In fact the snow can help protect the grass. The snow is at a stable temperature just below freezing. Without the snow the grass can be exposed to MUCH colder temperatures and strong winds causing winter damage especially if the grass is tall and unmowed.
In fall the grass is still trying to grow so the leaves will block all the sun preventing any photosynthesis. Also if there is any moisture, the leaves will keep it from drying out so it’s just wet and dark underneath, great for disease and bugs to grow helping kill the grass faster.
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