How would plants survive an extremely long, cold night
On my planet, the whole day lasts nine years. The day lasts 4.5 years of incredible heat, with glaciers from the night providing water. The night starts with the sunset, during which violent tornadoes occur and enters into the night lasting four and a half years before another set of tornadoes and then the cycle restarts. Animals migrate to survive these conditions but plants cannot do this. Many plants other than trees just spread their seeds and die during the winter in the real world. How would annual plants such as trees and cacti survive tornadoes as well as four and a half years of darkness and cold?
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Most plants would rely on seeds, and would have multiple cycles during the 39,420 hours of daylight. The seeds would probably have some temperature sensitivity so as to not germinate just before dusk.
Other plants might have hardened cores, where most of the plant could go dormant and lose most of it's water to prevent cell rupture, while a small place in the center would stay alive.
Trees could grow very deep roots to store energy harvested during the long day time, and at night would use geothermal heat from deep underground to keep from freezing completely. Because trees grow slower, they might not depend on seeds, but instead sprout something like basal shoots, which would form into new trees, pulling energy and warmth from the parent until they can put down their own deep roots and become self sufficient.
One fun idea is a plant that "migrates". It likes a certain light level, and doesn't do well in bright sunlight or in darkness. It's area is in the higher latitudes where the sun is not directly overhead. It's a creeper and is constantly growing toward the best light, meaning that it's growth is mainly in one direction, following the sun. As it's old growth moves closer to dusk it dies off and rots, putting nutrients back into the soil for it to utilize the following day as the planet rotates back to the relative location of the plant.
Luckily for the plant, there are no large bodies of water at that latitude that might block it's path.
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