LESSON 7: PLANT ADAPTATIONS

LEVEL ONE
Life is seldom ideal. We all live with situations that are difficult
for us in some way. Some people face severe problems such as not
being able to find enough food or clean water, living in extremely hot
or cold climates, or having to deal with a chronic illness. Others of
us live with milder limitations having to do with our age, our size, our
family situation, the neighborhood where we live, the work our parents
do, the personalities of our siblings, and so on.
We don’t think of plants as having the same problems that
we do, but to a large extent, they really do. They can experience
malnutrition, extreme temperatures, unfriendly neighbors, competition
for territory, “parents” who overshadow them, “siblings” who are
more or less successful than they are, chronic and acute illnesses,
and problems due to aging. Obviously, they can’t think about their problems like we can. All of their
responses come not from their brains (which they don’t have) but from their pre-programmed DNA
that allows them to adapt and survive.

Let’s take a look at two of the most basic problems a plant

might face. We could introduce these problems as a silly “Would You
Rather...?” question. In the “Would You Rather...?” game, players are
forced to choose between two bad options. For example, “Would you
rather be trapped in outer space or at the bottom of the ocean?” Not
matter which you choose, the outcome will not be good. You must
choose what you feel to be “the lesser of two evils,” and then explain
your choice. The game is intended to encourage interesting discussions
and hopefully bring some laughter along the way. If plants were playing
this game, one of them could ask this question: “Would you rather have
almost no water at all, or so much water that you are drowning in it?”
Assuming that a plant had a brain and could think about this question, it would ponder the
consequences of each option. Not having enough water would mean that as transpiration occurred,
there would be no way to replace the water lost through the leaves. The plant would dry out and
probably die. Being immersed in water would mean that the stomata (holes) in the leaves would be
filled with liquid water, preventing the plant from “breathing,” causing the plant to die. Too much water
might also encourage the growth of harmful bacteria. So which option is worse? It’s like choosing
between dying of thirst and drowning. Two bad options!

Some plants would definitely choose the “too little water” option. In fact, they live out that
scenario every day and mange to survive. Desert plants have special adaptations that allow them to
live in places that get less than 10 inches (25 cm) of rain a year. In deserts, rain is often seasonal,
and months can go by with no rain at all. How is it possible for a plant to survive that long without
water? Garden plants start wilting if they don’t get rain every week.
A normal plant growing in a place with adequate rainfall has a constant flow of water going in
through its roots, up through its stems, and out through its leaves. (Remember, the beginning of this
process is actually the “out through the leaves” part. The loss of water in the leaves causes water to
flow up through the stems, and finally come in through the roots.) If there is not a constant source of
water available, this mode of living doesn’t work. What changes would have to be made to a plant’s
anatomy in order to prepare it for life in a desert?

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LEAVES: This is where the water loss problem starts. That pesky transpiration process is constantly
allowing water molecules to go flying off into the atmosphere. Can this be prevented? Could we just
get rid of the leaves? Maybe, but leaves are where photosynthesis occurs, so the plants would starve
without photosynthesis. If a plant did not have leaves, it would have to have photosynthesis occurring
somewhere else. Or maybe we could just reduce the size of the leaves instead of getting rid of them
altogether. Smaller leaves would mean less water loss.

STEMS: What changes could be made to the stems? Could photosynthesis occur here?
Could the stems be adapted for water storage instead of simply holding tubes for water
transport? If so, the stems might have to become very large at times.

ROOTS: Is there any way to make roots more efficient at gathering water? Should the
roots go deeper? Or would it be better to keep them shallow and near the surface so that
they can quickly soak up rain when it comes? Would having more tiny root hairs help?

The most famous of all desert plants is the cactus,

of course. Cactus plants look like they have no leaves.
Technically, their sharp spines are actually leaves, but these
leaves are so thin that they lose almost no water at all. We
saw a similar adaptation in pine trees. Pine needles are
actually very thin leaves. However, since pine needles are
green, it is easier to think of them as leaves. Cactus spines
just don’t seem like leaves, but botanists assure us that
spines are indeed highly adapted leaves.
What could possibly be the purpose of a leaf that can
hardly do photosynthesis and doesn’t initiate transpiration?
What are cactus spines good for? The main thing they do
is hurt like crazy if you get them in your skin. Sharp spines
help to protect cacti from thirsty desert animals who might
want to quench their thirst with a big bite of juicy cactus
stem. Some botanists think the spines might also help to collect water at night. Little droplets of dew
form on the spines. These droplets run down the spines toward the stems, then they flow down the
stems, ending up at the base of the plant where the roots near the surface can absorb the moisture
quickly before the sun comes up.

The body of a cactus is technically a stem. Most cacti are green (or
at least green-ish), which tells you that these bulky stems contain chlorophyll.
Wherever there is chlorophyll, photosynthesis is occurring. Cacti must use
adapted forms of photosynthesis, however. Regular photosynthesis requires
a constant supply of water and carbon dioxide from the air. The “downside”
of not having regular leaves is that you can’t use regular photosynthesis.
The types of photosynthesis desert plants use are called “C4” and “CAM.”
(Regular photosynthesis is known as “C3” since it produces 3-carbon sugars.
C4 produces 4-carbon sugars. “CAM” is an abbreviation for a gruesomely
complicated word that even scientists don’t like to use because it’s too long.
They just say “CAM.”)
Cactus stems have the ability to store a lot of water — enough water to
keep the cactus alive during dry seasons that last for many months. The body
of a cactus usually looks like it is made of “pleats” that go in and out. This shape
allows for easy expansion and contraction without any disruption of the roots
at the base of the plant. The root system of a cactus is often very shallow and
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extends outward from the plant quite a distance. When rain comes, the cactus has thousands of root
hairs waiting and ready right near the surface. Large cacti can take in over 100 gallons (400 liters)
during a single rain storm.
A few types of cacti have very long tap roots in addition to lots of surface roots. The long
central tap root can be twice as long as the body (stem) of the cactus. This deep root can store a lot
of water.
Cactus stems have a structure that other plant do not have: bumps
called areoles. Botanists guess that areoles are most closely related to
the branches of regular plants. It is from the areoles that both spines and
flowers grow.
One last important cactus survival strategy is to grow slowly. Cacti
don’t need to be in any hurry. Growth takes energy. A plant’s energy
comes from sugars made during photosynthesis. Desert plants are already
at a disadvantage when it comes to photosynthesis because they have to
keep their stomata shut all day to prevent loss of moisture. Growing slowly
The bumps are areoles.
reduces the need for sugar.

Cacti are not the only type of plants that can survive in
dry climates. Plants called succulents are similar to cacti in
many ways, though they have actual leaves, not spines. The
leaves of succulent plants feel thick and “juicy.” The stems are
often very thick and can store water. Some succulents have
stems and leaves that are filled with a gooey substance called
mucilage (mew-sell-ahj). The mucilage acts like a sponge
and holds water. A common succulent plant that many people
recognize is the aloe vera plant. Some people call it the “burn
plant” because you can break open the leaves and use the
mucilage to soothe burned skin. The mucilage may feel slimy
This beautiful succulent is called aeonium.
and weird, but it does make your skin feel better.
Succulent leaves feel like they are covered in a waxy substance. This is because they are
covered in a waxy substance. We met this waxy substance back in lesson five when saw the cross
section of a leaf. The thin top layer was called the cuticle. All leaves have at least a tiny but of
cuticle, but succulent leaves have a lot of it. Cuticle is fairly waterproof, so it keeps moisture from
getting out of (or going into) the leaf.
Another characteristic of succulent leaves is a reduced number
of stomata. Those little stomata holes are where air and moisture
get in and out of a leaf, so if you have fewer holes you have less of
a problem with water molecules escaping. Succulents have fewer
stomata than regular plants. Also, succulents tend to close their
stomata during the day when the sun is hot and evaporation (and
therefore dehydration) will occur quickly. They open their stomata at
night, when the air is cooler and evaporation is less of a problem. This is a photo of a real stoma.

These stomata tricks are pretty slick, but there’s a downside to them. The reduced
number of stomata and the daytime closings also mean that a succulent leaf can’t
take in as much carbon dioxide as a normal leaf can. Like cacti, succulents need to
use those alternative forms of photosynthesis: “C4” and “CAM.” In these forms of
photosynthesis, carbon dioxide is brought in at night and the carbons are snipped off
and stored in the form of an acid. (You could think of it like canning food, perhaps?)
The succulent cells have to be very efficient with their carbon atoms because there is a
limited supply of carbon dioxide.

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 One last succulent survival trick worth mentioning is hair. Some plants grow hairs on their
leaves or stems in order to provide some extra protection from the wind and sun. The hairs act like a
layer of insulation, slowing down the rate of evaporation. On cold desert nights, dew can condense
on the hairs and perhaps a small trickle of water will reach the roots by morning.
A really thick layer of hairs probably also functions as a way to deter insects from biting into
the plant. The insect can’t get its mouthparts close enough to the stem because the hairs get in
the way. This feature can be seen on plants in temperate (not so hot) areas of the world, not just in
super dry climates. You might have some plants with hairy stems and leaves growing right near you.
Sunflowers, for instance, have very hairy stems. The plant called “Lamb’s Ear” has leaves so fuzzy
they feel like animal ears, not plant leaves.
Plant hairs are not made from the same stuff that animal hairs
are. Animal hair is made of “dead” protein molecules. Plant hairs are
made of living plant cells. Plant hairs are properly called trichomes,
and they are extensions of epidermis cells. (Remember the upper
and lower epidermis cells from the leaf cross section?) These
specialized epidermis cells can grow to be very long and thin. Some
have specialized cells at the tip that can secrete strong-smelling
substances. The strong smell of most herbs (such as mint) come Some trichome cells are long and skinny.
from smelly oils produced by gland cells on the tips of trichomes. The round tips make smelly oils.

Let’s turn now to the other terrible option for plants: drowning in
water. Too much water will kill most plants, but there are some plants
that are adapted for living in water all the time. What adaptations would
a plant need to have in order to survive being in water all the time?
Would the stomata be a problem? Would water still flow up the xylem
tubes? Would the roots need to be in dirt?
There are many types of aquatic plants and their adaptations are just what they need for their
specific environment. Some plants have their roots submerged in water all the time while their leaves
stay out of the water. Other plants have roots and stems under the water and leaves that float on the
surface. The most extreme water plants live completely submerged all the time.
What adaptations would a plant need to have in order to be able to live submerged in water all
the time? Would it need stomata or cuticle? What about roots? Would it be able to make flowers?

Seagrasses spend their entire life under the water. They look
and act very much like regular grass. They even have those pesky
rhizomes that let them use vegetative reproduction to spread very
quickly. This is annoying in your garden when the grass starts
taking over your strawberry patch, but along seashores this ability
to spread quickly is a very good thing. Seagrasses are a very
important part of shoreline ecosystems. Seagrasses reproduce
using flowers and seeds, too. The pollen is carried by water
instead of wind.
Seagrass leaves have neither cuticle nor stomata. It’s
A manatee eating seagrass. (USGS photo)
pointless to try to keep water in or out when you are surrounded
by it all the time! The cells in the leaves are okay with being saturated with water all the time and the
cells have micro-adaptations that let them take carbon dioxide right from the water. Like all leaves,
seagrass leaves need sunlight for photosynthesis. This means that seagrasses can only grow in
relatively shallow water. If the water becomes cloudy because of pollution, the deeper seagrasses
will start to die out. Dying grass might not sound like a big deal, but seagrasses occupy a very
important place in many aquatic ecosystems. Seagrass beds are filled with all kinds of animal life. If
the grasses disappear, so do the animals.
Seagrasses have another adaptation that helps them to survive in the water. They have
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 These three different types of seagrasses all have leaves that flex and bend with the water currents.

microscopic air sacs in their leaves and stems that act like little floaties, keeping the leaves upright
in the water. (If you take seagrass out of the water, it droops over your hand like a wet noodle. The
leaves don’t have stiff central veins like regular grass blades do. Seagrasses need to be able to
bend and flex and “go with the flow” in the water. If their leaves were stiff, they’d get torn apart by
the motion of the water.) The tiny air sacs in the leaves and stems provide just the right amount of
buoyancy so that the leaves stay upright in the water, reaching toward the sunlight.
Water plants are surrounded by water, so transpiration is not necessary. Cells can get
whatever they need by osmosis. (Remember, osmosis is when molecules go right through the cell’s
membrane.) The carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients are abundant all around the cells, so xylem
tubes aren’t really necessary. In most water plants, the vascular bundles are very much reduced, and
in some cases they are almost absent.

A slightly less drastic situation is when a plant is only partly submerged in water. The bottom
half of the plant stays in the water while the top part is allowed to touch the air. A great example of a
plant adapted to this situation is the water lily. Let’s take a close-up look at a lily that holds the world
record for the largest leaf in the plant kingdom: the Amazon lily.

Found in the Amazon River in South America, this lily can grow leaves that are up to 8 feet (2.5
meters) across. These giant leaves are almost perfectly round and look like floating plates. They are
quite stable and can support the weight of small birds and animals. Their strength is due to a network
of strong veins on the underside of the leaf. Their ability to float is due to small air pockets inside the
veins. In addition to being strong, these veins can also be deadly — they are covered in sharp spines.
Fish learn very quickly that nibbling lily veins is a bad idea!
The undersides of the lily leaves have two other features that are worth mentioning. Like
seagrasses, the undersides of lily leaves have no stomata and no cuticle. Unlike seagrasses, these
undersides have lots of red pigment in them. The red pigment molecules help to catch wavelengths
of light that the green chlorophyll pigments on top might miss.
The top side of a lily leaf is nothing like the bottom side. It’s green, is covered with waxy
cuticle, and contains stomata. The top side is adapted to living in air, the bottom side to water.
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 The life cycle of the Amazon water lily sounds like something from a
fantasy story. Its flowers bloom for only two days. The first night it blooms,
the flower is female. It’s white and smells like fragrant perfume, an odor
that scarab beetles find irresistible. Once the flower has attracted beetles,
it closes up, trapping the beetles inside. During the night, the flower
changes its gender from female to male, and its color from white to pink. It
also stops making perfume. When the flower opens up at the end of the
second day, the beetles are freed from their flowery prison but are covered
with pollen grains. The flower no longer smells good, so they fly off to find
another white lily flower, carrying the pink pollen grains with them.
Once fertilized, the flower closes and falls to the bottom of the river where it forms a seed.
The seed does not begin to grow until the next year. Lily seeds usually germinate right as the
Amazon River is reaching its annual flood stage, with the water rising several inches a day. The
newly sprouted water lily stem must grow at an unbelievably fast rate in order to keep its “head”
above the rising water. The stem is capable of growing up to 20 feet (7 meters) tall in just a few
weeks. When the waters stop rising, the lily starts growing giant leaves (lily pads).
It’s then a battle of lily versus lily, with each plant attempting to dominate its area. (Sibling
rivalry happens even among plants!) Once a giant leaf has spread itself out over the water, any plant
underneath it will die from lack of sunlight.
A side benefit of this situation is that algae
is also prevented from growing. This is
why water lilies (usually varieties other
than Amazon) are planted in outdoor
water gardens. People would rather look
at lily leaves than algae “scum.”

One of the smallest aquatic plants on

earth is called “duckweed” or “water lentils.”
Duckweed looks like tiny green dots floating on
the surface of a lake or pond. They are bright
green and look very clean. True to its name,
ducks love duckweed. Other water birds eat it too, as well as people in some parts of the world. It’s a
great source of protein, even  better than soybeans, and it produces more starch per acre than corn!
It’s possible that duckweed could be turned into ethanol fuel, just like corn is. Some day our cars
might run on fuel made from duckweed!
A duckweed plant consists of just a tiny leaf, with no
visible stems or roots. (In some species, the leaves have very
small root hairs dangling from the underside.) If duckweed
doesn’t have stems or roots can it still be classified as a plant?
We decided way back at the beginning of lesson one that there
are only two requirements for being a plant: 1) you must do
photosynthesis, and 2) you must be made of more than one cell.
Duckweed qualifies on both counts. In fact, it’s even classified
as an angiosperm since it occasionally produces flowers — the
tiniest flowers in the plant kingdom, no larger than the width of a
piece of thread!

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ACTIVITY 1: SIT LIKE A LUMP ON YOUR CHAIR OR COUCH AND WATCH VIDEOS

This activity should not be too difficult. Log on to www.YouTube.com/TheBasementWorkshop

and enjoy the videos about desert plants and water lilies.

ACTIVITY 2: PLANT PUZZLE

Fill in the missing words in the clues, then transfer the letters to the numbered slots
underneath the pictures. Assuming you’ve filled in the clues correctly, you’ll find out the names of the
succulent plants in the pictures. (We’re counting cacti as succulents. Sometimes the word succulent
is used as a more general term, with cacti being a subcategory.)

1) Succulents have fewer ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ and more ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ .
68 18 94 1 31 11 22 65 45 36
They also have gooey stuff called ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ in their stems and leaves.
52 54 9 32 84 2
2) Cacti have bumps called ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ on their ___ ___ ___ ___ ___.
59 38 74 95 5
3) Desert plants must use two other forms of photosynthesis: “___4” and “___ ___ ___.”
90 53 39
4) The water plant called ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ looks like tiny green dots. Even though
71 28 66 48 57
it does not have stems or roots, it is still a ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ because it does photosynthesis and
is made of more than one cell. 86 3 10

5) Duckweed is very nutritious. Like soy, it is a good source of ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ and
like corn, it is a good source of ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___. 47 7 19 96 20
67 49 41 62 56
6) Like all plants, when a duckweed flower is pollinated, a ___ Z ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ is formed.
35 46 70 24
7) This type of animal loves to eat seagrass: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___.
72 16 55 89
8) Plants hairs are called ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ and originate from the
50 87 13 63 33
___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ layer.
21 93 34 78 42
9) The ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ side of an Amazon lily ___ ___ ___ is the color ___ ___ ___ and
37 15 97 81 25 8 79 61
has sharp ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ on the veins.
88 60 26
10) When water evaporates out through the leaves, causing an upward flow of water from the roots,
this is called ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___.
73 69 27 40 29 77 76 64 14
11) The aloe plant is sometimes used to treat this type of injury: ___ ___ ___ ___
6 92 58
12) ___ S ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ plants have very ___ B ___ ___ ___ ___ stems. This lets
91 23 43 80 75 30 44 51
them store water so they can ___ S ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ in desert climates.
17 82 4 89
13) This word root means “naked” in Greek: ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
83 98 12

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 __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ cactus __ __ __ __ __ __ plant __ __ __ __ __ plant
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

__ __ __ plant __ __ __ __ __ __ cactus __ __ __ __ plant __ __ __ __ __ plant

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 21 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
40 41 42 43 44 45 46 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61
__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
47 48 49 50 62 63 64 65 66 67

__ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __
68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98
cactus __ __ __ __ cactus plant
86 87 88 89
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