What are trees in colder climates “doing” during the winter time when everything is frozen and they have no leaves? Are they hibernating?
In: 267
Basically, yes.
The leaves and sap can’t function properly in cold temperatures, and they would freeze, cresting ice crystals that would puncture the cells, killing them all. By basically shutting down, they save a ton of resources not trying to keep their leaves alive or pump nutrients around.
Evergreen trees use their needle-like leaves and an antifreeze protein in their sap to keep their leaves all year long.
Essentially yes , deciduous trees are mostly asleep , they pretty much shut down and just coast the winter months away, evergreens have a very complex system that lets them survive winter and keep their needles , it invokes anti freeze like proteins and stuff that make it so that ice doesn’t form in their cells and they can keep on going albeit not as fast as warmer seasons
Deciduous trees have no such systems in place so rather then have a very expensive time keeping their leaves up for little to no gain they just drop everything and make all new buds.
It works in the favour of the trees as well since old leaves actually are less efficient then younger ones so constantly recycling every year is beneficial , plus fallen leaves act as good fertilizers for young tree seedlings.
Trees actually become reliant on it for their yearly cycle , they “know” it’s spring when it’s warmer and can flower and fruit , if you stick a lot of cold climate plants in the tropics they may never flower or fruit ever
Latest Answers