2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
We were looking forward to July, dreaming to bask under its hot rays. Two or three days pass, and I already want a refreshing rain for myself and my green wards. We gaze longingly at the blue skies, but they are transparent and pure. However, there are plants on Earth that do not wait for the grace of heaven. Over the millennia of their presence on the planet, they have adapted to take care of themselves, accumulating huge reserves of moisture for future use
Cactus - a living cistern
All cacti are living cisterns with water, but the most powerful of them is the pachycereus cactus. Its trunk often exceeds 1.5 meters in diameter. Lateral branches of a smaller diameter gain in length, breaking away from the main trunk into the blue of the sky to a height of up to 20 meters.
In the deserts of Mexico, there are real forests of pachycereus. Their roots, located within a radius of 15 meters around the trunk, will not miss a single drop of moisture, accumulating it in their storages. One cactus can accumulate up to ten tons of moisture and calmly gaze at the cloudless sky for several years in a row, sharing stocks with other representatives of the living world of the desert.
Another representative of the Mexican deserts, the carnegia cactus (or giant cereus), without getting tired of the heat, can live for 200 years, periodically replenishing its "reservoirs" with a capacity of up to one ton with moisture reserves. If heavy rains occur, the carnegia cactus can lose its sense of proportion and absorb more moisture than the size of its pantries allows. This leads to a tragedy, since the cactus plant shell does not withstand the pressure of supplies, and its trunk bursts.
Baobab - barrel barrel
A unique tree, the baobab, does not hope for help from the outside and in the rainy season it floods its powerful trunk with moisture as much as possible, the shape of which is similar to our barrels, in which quite recently (and some people even today) people fermented cabbage, salted mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes and even watermelons, preparing for the frosty winter.
Firmly anchored in the soil with powerful roots, the baobab fearlessly meets drought and sandstorms. He gradually spends his moisture reserves, becoming more and more graceful. While careless plants, not taking care of moisture reserves, die during prolonged drought, baobab only "grows thin". Its leaves turn yellow, it seems to shrink all over, slowing down vital activity. In such an economical mode, the baobab waits for the rainy season to get saturated with moisture again and make supplies for the future.
While our garden plants suffer from the invasion of ants and their "milking cows", the aphids, the moisture-saturated trunk of the baobab is too tough for even termites, which are much more powerful and more dangerous than ants. But the birds find shelter during sandstorms in the niches of the trunks, which are dotted with old baobabs. In them, birds save their lives from predators.
Moisture-saturated baobab wood does not burn, so small inhabitants of these places find refuge in tree trunks during fires.
The generous baobab gives people food. Its leaves are used as a seasoning, and not only people, but also birds and our "relatives" - monkeys enjoy the fruits.
Baobab bark is used to make ropes. They make baskets from it for collecting vegetables and fruits, make beds of Indians - hammocks.
Give me clear water from the road
The island of Madagascar gave the world an interesting plant that can be found today in cities in tropical countries. His name is "the tree of travelers", although this is not a tree at all, but a grass, a relative of bananas.
The type of plant is very peculiar, similar to a ten-meter fan. The long petioles end in long leaves that form a fan around the trunk, similar to the trunk of palm trees.
Water accumulates at the base of the petioles, ready to give drink to the thirsty traveler. He can only make a puncture of the sheath of the sheet, substituting a container for the water flowing out of the hole.
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