The way I understand it .... a body must create it's own heat in order to feel wind chill. No, plants don't feel it, but 38 degrees is too low for most tropicals. The wind blew the cover off my anthuriums and the Medinilla magnifica. Luckily the weather guessers got it wrong for my location and the temp got down to 49, not 39. Man of man, did I ever luck out!!!!

Beachlily is correct as I understand it. I saw a meteorologist explain the same thing on The Weather Channel some years ago. Objects that do not produce heat are not subject to the wind chill phenomena. They remain at air temperature.

You mean I spend hours covering everything when wind chill is predicted yet temps in the 40"s and I didn't need to? Yikes. I wish I could believe that it wasn't necessary but I do notice browning of leaves on things that are not covered.
this is an interesting thread and I hope more will chime in with additional information.
I would love to stay in my cozy house instead of wrestling with endless blankets in the wind!
Hester

They don't feel wind chill like animals do, but continuous cold dry winds do seem to damage their leaves. Plants have their moisture sucked away by the dry winds and the additional stress of the cold temperatures.

On the other hand, calm winds may contribute to frost formation under certain circumstances.

It's interesting to hear that windchill doesn't affect plants as much. My windchill forecast was low 20's with the nighttime low being around 35. Like a few of you, I awoke the next morning to find my covers tossed about a bit by the wind leaving pretty big gaps in my tropical bed. One of my decorative bananas was already showing signs of damage at 6:30 that morning. My one young bajoo banana was still under cover and made it through unscathed. But I was surprised to see that my firebush's leaves had not gone limp and started to blacken (and still haven't). This is usually the first plant in my yard to show cold damage. Often just moments after I walk by with an iced tea in July. I will have to look into a better way of securing my tarps and blankets so I don't end up with too much damage in the tropical bed if/when we get colder nights.

Isn't there such a thing as wind burn?

Thanks for the heads-up, Leekle!
Cold drinks are frowned upon in my firespikes' end of the yard!

I used to make a frame box out of PVC pipes and fittings that I could place over top of tender plants in the garden, then drape my blankets and secure with clothes pins. If there was space to anchor the bottom of the cover with bricks, that would keep them from blowing off. The pipe frame kept the cover from touching the foliage in case there was frost. But mostly, that helped keep the wind off, because I feel like those poor babies DO feel the wind chill. Amber knows what she's talking about!

Susie

Yes, cold and dry air can dehydrate plant tissues, resulting in damage. But this has nothing to do with the weatherman's "wind chill factor", about which I will just say, they should have never brought it up. I can't tell you the number of times I've heard people say something like 'it's supposed to get down to fifty below zero tonight' or some such equivalent bit of nonsense, when in fact what they mean, of course, is that some stupid talking head focused on this factor in their forecast. I mean really now, do we have to be told that a cold day feels colder if the wind is blowing? So dumb.

Then too, as mentioned above, there are tropical species which suffer at temps well above the freezing point. This also has nothing whatsoever to do with "wind chill factor", the plants' physiology being such that they evolved in places that never get below, say 40 F or whatever value is associated with damage for them. A wind when these critical temps are happening may or may not effect the plant, but it has nothing to do with the way cold air feels colder on an animals skin when that cold air is in motion.

+oM

Plants do not actually freeze until the temp drops to 28 degrees. At that point the water in the tissue expands and burst the cells. creating frost damage. Wind burns plants by dehydration and can appear to look like frost bite sometimes.
The key to all this is to look at the individual plant species. Most have a minimum temperature that they will tolerate. Some plants will be damaged when the temperature drops below 50 degrees and others can go well below 0 with out damage. It is easy to look up a plant you are concerned about on the web and find the minium temperature it will tolerate. Hope this helps.