Are there any species of plant that require seasonal temperature drops as part of their life-cycle?

Submitted by I3P t3_10n8bdv in askscience

Weird worldbuilding question! Lets assume that somehow seasonal variation ends, and we have constant spring-like temperature the whole year round. would there be any plant species that die off because they require the drop in temperatures as part of their life-cycle? as a signal to go to seed for example, or something else I'm not thinking of.

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Connect_Eye_5470 t1_j68p8wg wrote

Basically... all of them. Here is a prime example Soy. Now humans worked on altering Soy so it would mature at a slightly different amount of daylight and whammo Brazil became a massive Soy exporter when prior it couldn't grow Soy in most of the country.

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BlazeObsidian t1_j690uxs wrote

A lot of trees require their seeds to undergo stratification before they can germinate.

For example the Japanese maple seeds undergo cold stratification where the seeds fall to the ground and lay dormant there under the snow. Only after this process is done will they germinate.

Note that this is not a hard and fast rule. But seeds that don’t undergo stratification take longer and have much lower chances of germination

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destiny_________ t1_j699yqt wrote

Peonies and azaleas and many other flowers use temperature change to in a way "judge" ideal blooming time. Probably often aligns with timing for pollinators to be active, which they often cant be very active in very cold weather

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Hot_Flan1220 t1_j695yvp wrote

Fruit trees from colder climates -basically anything deciduous like apples or peaches- need a certain amount of cold to come out of dormancy and start flowering.

For many, the colder the winter, the more fruit the following year.

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PerspectivePure2169 t1_j6bb4g3 wrote

Winter wheat does - it's in the name. It requires a certain amount of cold temperature exposure as a seedling (fall planted and overwinters) to vernalize or else it won't enter reproductive life stages, and remains a grass with no seeds.

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