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Adaptations in xerophytes include resistance to heat and water loss, increased water storage capabilities, and reduced surface area of leaves. One of the most common families of desert plants are the cacti, which are covered in sharp spines or bristles for defence against
The Nama Karoo of Namibia has the world's richest desert fauna. [8] The Chihuahuan desert and Central Mexican matorral are the richest deserts in the Neotropics. [9] The Carnarvon xeric shrublands of Australia are a regional center for endemism. [1] The Sonoran and Baja deserts of Mexico are unusual desert communities dominated by giant ...
Cape Ground Squirrel (Xerus inauris) in the Namib Desert. Plants and animals living in the desert need special adaptations to survive in the harsh environment. Plants tend to be tough and wiry with small or no leaves, water-resistant cuticles, and often spines to deter herbivory.
Representative desert plants include the barrel cactus, brittlebush, chain fruit cholla, creosote. Additionally, it is also common to see crimson hedgehog, cactus, common saltbush and desert ironwood, fairy duster, Joshua tree. In some deserts Mojave aster, ocotillo, organ pipe cactus and pancake prickly pear cactus can be found.
Xerophytic plants exhibit a diversity of specialized adaptations to survive in such water-limiting conditions. They may use water from their own storage, allocate water specifically to sites of new tissue growth, or lose less water to the atmosphere and so channel a greater proportion of water from the soil to photosynthesis and growth.
[6] [7] Desert chaparral is a regional ecosystem subset of the deserts and xeric shrublands biome, with some plant species from the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. Unlike cismontane chaparral, which forms dense, impenetrable stands of plants, desert chaparral is often open, with only about 50 percent of the ground covered. [8]
Increasingly frequent and severe heat waves in the Southwest are damaging some desert plants known for thriving in harsh conditions. Saguaro cacti and agave have both suffered in sweltering ...
Creosote bush scrub is a North American desert vegetation type (or biome) of sparsely but evenly spaced desert plants dominated by creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) and its associates. Its visual characterization is of widely spaced shrubs that are somewhat evenly distributed over flat or relatively flat desert areas that receive between 2 and ...