Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Frozen banana - still some green in one leaf, 1 by digital_dave

digital_dave wrote:
I've never understood how some plants (like mums) can withstand freezing and thawing over and over, while tropicals cannot. Here's a close-up picture of a very frozen banana plant that bloomed this year. It has been subjected to 26 degrees and with the small exception of this green part of a single leaf. It is surely done for this year; the main "stem" is still greenish but all the leaves are brown. Can anyone give me a 8th grade explanation of this? I had a biologist explain it to me but it went right over my head.

Temperatures are headed into the mid 70s today after wallowing in the 40s and 50s with clouds all week. "Typical" heartland weather.
Dave.

p.s. I have removed all the pups and stored them in the garage. Should I dig up the base of the plant and store it hoping for a few more pups? None are visible from the surface.