Succulents
The Perfect House Plants!
In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with
parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water
in arid climates or soil conditions. The word succulent comes from the
Latin word sucus, meaning "juice" or "sap".
By definition, succulent plants are
drought-resistant plants in which the leaves, stem, or
roots have become more than usually fleshy by the development of
water-storing tissue. Other sources exclude roots as in the definition
"a plant with thick, fleshy and swollen stems and/or leaves, adapted to
dry environments". The difference affects the relationship between
succulents and "geophytes"–plants that survive unfavorable seasons as a
resting bud on an underground organ. The underground organs, such as
bulbs, corms, and tubers, are often fleshy with water-storing tissues.
Thus, if roots are included in the definition, many geophytes would be
classed as succulents. Plants adapted to living in dry environments such
as succulents, are termed xerophytes. However, not all xerophytes are
succulents, since there are other ways of adapting to a shortage of
water, e.g., by developing small leaves which may roll up or having
leathery rather than succulent leaves. Nor are all succulents
xerophytes, as plants such as Crassula helmsii are both succulent and
aquatic.