Response to Cold - Responses of Plants to Stress
Let us first see what happen to a plant when it is exposed to a cold climate with temperatures below 0°C. If the temperature is rapidly brought down e.g., >4°C per minute, the extracellular as well as intracellular fluids may freeze. However, if cooling is gradual (
You can guess that intracellular freezing would cause more severe injury to the cell than freezing of the extracellular fluids. However, cooling beyond certain limit can cause fatal injury to the cells. When extracellular water freezes, the intracellular water of hydration moves out and because of the larger space occupied by ice, it squeezes the cell from all around.