😲Did you know this About Cacti?
As you may know, it rarely rains in the desert. When it does rain, the rain is often light, and it may take many months for a desert to experience rainfall again. The desert sun is also extremely hot and dries up rainwater in a very short time.
So how does a cactus survive without water for extended periods? To cope with the dry and hot conditions in the desert, cactus stores plenty of water whenever it rains.
You might imagine that cacti might have deep roots to enable them to absorb water from deep in the earth. While this may be true for most environments, it’s not the same case for deserts.
Water evaporates pretty fast from the hot desert sun. Therefore, the soil never gets a chance to soak up water and store it below the surface.
Therefore, the plants have shallow root systems to allow them to absorb as much water as possible. The roots are only 1.3 cm deep, hence it doesn’t take long for the rainwater to reach them for absorption.
Aside from being shallow, the shallow roots also transverse across large areas. Covering a larger surface area allows the roots to absorb lots of water at a go.
After absorption, the plant stores gallons of water in its stem making it appear swollen. The desert sand may look dry since it drains fast, but if you want to know if it has recently rained just look at a cactus’s turgidity.
