How are the desert plants adapted to their environmental conditions?
The desert plants
The desert plants are generally small-sized as compared to the plants that grow in environments that have water. The desert plants face a shortage of water and rain, strong wind, and an extreme rise in the temperature during the daylight.
The adaptation of the desert plants
The roots of the desert plants extend vertically in the soil for great depths to reach the humid layers of the soil (to absorb the groundwater), such as the Calamagrostis plant.
The roots of the desert plants spread horizontally to absorb a large amount of the rainwater or the dew, and store it in the stems as in the opuntia plant or in succulent (juicy) leaves as in the cactus plant.
The desert plants
The leaves of the desert plants are small-sized, They may be ribbon-like and spiralled, There are a few numbers of stomata that lie deeply to reduce the loss of water by transpiration like the Calamagrostis plant.
The leaves of the desert plants are used in storing the water as in the cactus, The leaves of the desert plants are surrounded by a waxy layer to prevent water loss by transpiration as in the cactus.
The leaves of the desert plants are modified (reduced) into the spines to reduce the loss of water during the transpiration process as in the opuntia plant.
The stems of the desert plants are short to avoid the strong winds as in the cactus plant. They may be rich in the chloroplasts to perform the photosynthesis process as in the opuntia plant.
The roots of the Calamagrostis plant are branched and extended vertically deep in the soil to absorb the groundwater to overcome the water shortage.
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