Australian Desert Plants
Have you ever wondered how plants in the desert survive? No water for months on ends; scorching hot weather day in and day out; surly they would eventually dry out and shrivel up to nothing. Right? Wrong.
Most plants have something much like a storage canteen in them (scientifically this is called a bulb), allowing them to store water and then use it sparingly and only as essentially needed to survive.
They also protect themselves from losing this precious storage of water by growing tough outer coats and even painful thorns. This prevents animals of the desert from trying to eat the plant for its water supply.
Take a cactus for instance; it grows painful spines across its entire stem and body to protect its water supply; the spines are not there to hurt unsuspecting humans who stumble across these, they are there for the plants survival.
It has been said that if you are ever lost in the desert, you can dig up a cactus and drink the water from its bulb that it has stored. I suppose that at that point, you don?t much care about the pokey and painful thorns.
Australian desert plants are some of the hardiest found on our planet. The trees often have longer root systems, allowing them to go in search of water sources and store it in its long bulb for later on use.
The Australian desert plants also provide much needed protection for other desert dwellers. Lizards often use these trees for shade and shelter, and sometimes even as a water source, but not often as the bark is extra tough and not very tasty.
Trees in the Australian desert grow shorter than those on the coasts, mostly to protect them from the hot desert sun. They also grow large protective and waxy leaves that help keep the water they have stored from evaporating.
The Australian desert is also home to something called the drought avoiders. These are the Australian plants that only sprout after a hard rain and last about three weeks before dying off again.
It is as if the seeds were underground just waiting to be given their growth spurt. Most growth occurs overnight after a rainfall. I think if one was to visit the Australian desert and study the Australian desert plants they would find themselves amazed at the marvel of design that these plants and trees seem to have.
As humans our bodies are designed to store water, but we can?t store water for months on end, nor can we train our bodies to take just a little bit of our water at a time to keep us alive. Somehow these plants have it all figured out. Isn?t nature an amazing thing?
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