Adaptation to climate in five eastern North America broadleaf deciduous species: Growth clines and evidence of the growth-cold tolerance trade-off

•We evaluate growth clines driven by climate and assess evidence of the growth rate-cold tolerance trade-off in five broadleaf deciduous species.•We detected steep growth clines driven by temperature in three of the evaluated species and weak differentiation in the other two.•We found strong evidence for the growth-cold tolerance trade-off in broadleaf deciduous species.