Appearance
The storage of water often gives succulent plants a more swollen or fleshy appearance than other plants, a characteristic known as succulence. In addition to succulence, succulent plants variously have other water-saving features. These may include:
- Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) to minimize water loss
- absent, reduced, or cylindrical-to-spherical leaves
- reduction in the number of stomata
- stems as the main site of photosynthesis, rather than leaves
- compact, reduced, cushion-like, columnar, or spherical growth form
- ribs enabling rapid increases in plant volume and decreasing surface area exposed to the sun
- waxy, hairy, or spiny outer surface to create a humid micro-habitat around the plant, which reduces air movement near the surface of the plant, and thereby reduces water loss and creates shade
- roots very near the surface of the soil, so they are able to take up moisture from very small showers or even from heavy dew
- ability to remain plump and full of water even with high internal temperatures (e.g. 52 °C or 126 °F)
- very impervious outer cuticle (skin)
- mucilaginous substances, which retain water abundantly
Read more about this topic: Succulent Plant
Famous quotes containing the word appearance:
“The fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown.”
—Plato (c. 427–347 B.C.)
“You speak of poverty and dependence. Who are poor and dependent? Who are rich and independent? When was it that men agreed to respect the appearance and not the reality?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Most lovers ... picture to themselves, in their mistresses, a secret reality, beyond and different from what they see every day. They are in love with somebody else—their own invention. And sometimes there is a secret reality; and sometimes reality and appearance are the same. The discovery, in either case, is likely to cause a shock.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)