CAN PLANTS GROW IN A DESERT?

Plants can grow in a desert, but they need special ways to survive. Cacti have spreading roots that slurp up any rain as soon as it falls. Then they take great care of the water, storing it inside their juicy stems. It may have to last them weeks, months or even years.


Huge bunches of sweet, sticky dates dangle from palm trees, beside springs in the deserts of Africa and the Middle East. People have been picking the delicious fruit in these parts for more than 5,000 years.


Daisies, poppies and many other plants flower in the desert. The plants wither and die during the hot, dry months but their seeds survive in the ground. When it rains, they soon spring into action. They grew into new plants and cover the dry desert with a beautiful carpet of flowers within a few weeks.

• Desert plants save lives! Many thirsty travelers have sucked life-saving water from the juicy flesh of a cactus.

WHY DO TREES HAVE LEAVES?

          Like all plants, trees need their leaves to stay alive. Leaves are a tree's food factories. They contain a sticky green stuff called chlorophyll. The chlorophyll uses water, sunlight and carbon dioxide in the air to make a sugary food. The food is then carried to every part of the tree in a sweet and sticky juice called sap.


        Big green leaves are useful in spring and summer. They make food while the sun shines and the days are long. When the days get shorter, there's less time for making food and the tree must live off its food reserves. Rather than feed their leaves too, some trees shed their leaves in autumn.


         It's the chlorophyll in a plant's leaves that makes them look green. But in autumn, the chlorophyll breaks down. Once the green colouring has gone, the leaves' other colors show through - beautiful shades of red, yellow and gold.