Sahara Desert Plants
Mention the Sahara Desert to anyone and they’ll describe a barren wasteland with no life and no hope. While this perception is partially true, there are many Sahara Desert plants. It’s not a matter of enough water, or too much heat during the day and cold at night, but a matter of how life has found a way to adapt to and survive in this unusual environment.
Some aquatic plants persist in the same way as do annual plants, with dormant stages in their life history that are stimulated to develop by occasional sufficient rainfall. Although being a desert area, one can notice annual rainfall in many regions of this vast land area.
Shortly after the last Ice Age is a Sahara Desert wasn’t the same as it is now. Sahara Desert plants were far more abundant, and of the type that thrived on much more water. Not only do the plants there survive with little moisture, a lot of moisture would actually kill them. It’s just like animals that adapt to cold conditions. The cold may look difficult, but they would die in a warmer environment.
Typical Sahara Desert plants include shrubs and grasses. Since grass grows over such a large area and has an easier time of finding water. The grasses in the desert won’t become sick and green like they would in a suburban yard, but they do okay. The trees are similar, don’t look for thick canopies.
One reason leaves are a huge disadvantage for Sahara Desert plants is the amount of surface area they have. Evaporation can happen in an instant in the desert. Plants would soon die if their moisture flew off into the atmosphere. Evaporation goals wild over the wide expanse of a leaf. Needles and spines, however, don’t have as much surface area and thus evaporation is less rapid. Cacti develop thick trunks to protect their water from surface evaporation. Water conservation is the key.
It’s not just dry heat Sahara Desert plants must withstand, it’s also a soil rich in salts. Halphytes thrive in the desert, that is plants that are fine with a lot of salt.
The Sahara Desert, as do hot deserts in general, presents a number of challenges for plants that grow there. But Sahara Desert plants grow and thrive because life always finds a way.
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