How plants manage the shift from winter to spring - by Richard B. Primack

Trees in cold climates have evolved protections against ice and snow.
Photo: Richard Primack CC BY-ND

If you’ve ever seen lilac bushes crushed by snowdrifts, then budding on a warm day just a few weeks later, you may wonder how plants tolerate such extremes.

Tolerating cold

On winter days when temperatures fall below freezing, animals will hibernate underground or huddle together in protected spots. But trees and shrubs have to sit there and take it - the tissues in their trunks, branches and roots are alive. How do they survive the freezing cold?