High-elevation angiosperms maintain extensive living storage tissue with large non-structural carbohydrate pools

These coordinated anatomical and physiological shifts indicate a physiology-to-anatomy linkage in which elevation-related accumulation of mobile reserves and nutrients expands living storage cells, enhances cryoprotection by lowering cellular osmotic potential, limits ice propagation, and buffers metabolism against intermittent carbon and nutrient acquisition. By connecting cellular storage pools to tissue architecture across more than three hundred Himalayan species, this study reveals a widespread yet underexplored mechanism of alpine adaptation and provides a framework for understanding how storage physiology shapes plant persistence in cold, resource-limited ecosystems.