• Question: What plant can live in the hottest enviroment?

    Asked by to Amelia, Izzy, Sarah on 20 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Isabel Webb

      Isabel Webb answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Hot areas also usually don’t have much water around either. The hottest places on Earth are deserts, like the Sahara.

      The cactus is a plant that has evolved to be able to live in the desert. It has lots of features that it has adapted to live somewhere that hot and dry.

      Cacti have lots and lots of roots that are able to dig very deep, and travel very far to look for water. They then have big thick stems which store any water they find, in case water starts running out.

      Water is carried up from roots to leaves, and then evaporates out of leaves. This is called transpiration, and it happens a lot when it is hot (this is why plants need more water in the summer). Cacti have evolved to avoid this problem by having spines instead of leaves. This helps by reducing the amount of leaf surface for water to evaporate from.

    • Photo: anon

      anon answered on 20 Mar 2014:

      Whilst not an environment, some plants rely on fire (very very hot) their seeds require fire to germinate (start growing)

      Examples of these plants are Heather. The fire burns away old heather which isn’t good for animals to eat, and the surviving new seeds grow!

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