Eli5: How do trees survive temperatures well below freezing that would cause frostbite/cell death in animals?

Question

I was curious given this week’s extremely low temperatures, and how yearly, trees seem to avoid death of their cells and structures in what would be otherwise destructive temperatures. How do they do this?

In: Biology

Answer 1

The sugars and other chemicals in the sap lowers the freezing point so they can survive. If the sap were to freeze, ice crystals would probably destroy the cell walls like they do for some vegetables in a freezer. Trees don’t grow above a certain altitude where the temperature would drop too low in that location, called the “tree line”.