The United States has lost its only stand of the massive Key Largo tree cactus in what researchers believe is the first local extinction of a species caused by sea level rise in the country.
Plants & Animals
Jul 9, 2024
0
311
(PhysOrg.com) -- One of humanity’s earliest mathematical inquiries might have involved the geometric patterns in plants. The arrangement of leaves on a branch, seeds in a sunflower, and spines on a cactus appear with an ...
Farm-grown fish are an important source of food with significant and worldwide societal and economic benefits, but the fish that come from these recirculating systems can have unpleasant tastes and odors. To clean contaminated ...
Materials Science
Mar 13, 2016
1
4519
(PhysOrg.com) -- Access to clean drinking water is lacking in many parts of the world but most technologies to clean water to make it fit for drinking are expensive and hard to maintain. Now researchers propose a cactus common ...
French scientists have transformed the chemical energy generated by photosynthesis into electrical energy. They thus propose a new strategy to convert solar energy into electrical energy in an environmentally-friendly and ...
Analytical Chemistry
Feb 18, 2010
0
0
Organisms such as cacti and desert beetles can survive in arid environments because they've evolved mechanisms to collect water from thin air. The Namib desert beetle, for example, collects water droplets on the bumps of ...
Materials Science
Feb 24, 2016
2
445
Beware the jumping cholla, Cylindropuntia fulgida. This shrubby, branching cactus will—if provoked by touching—anchor its splayed spines in the flesh of the offender. The barbed spines grip so tightly that a segment of ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 20, 2018
1
161
Fossils of a bizarre animal dubbed the "walking cactus" have shed light on the evolution of crabs and spiders, Chinese researchers reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
Archaeology
Feb 23, 2011
7
0
A giant Saguaro cactus that had lived for some 200 years was toppled by heavy rain in the southwestern US state of Arizona.
Ecology
Aug 30, 2022
0
8
Could cactus pear become a major crop like soybeans and corn in the near future, and help provide a biofuel source, as well as a sustainable food and forage crop? According to a recently published study, researchers from ...
Other
Mar 5, 2021
1
155
A cactus (plural: cacti, cactuses or cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae. Their distinctive appearance is a result of adaptations to conserve water in dry and/or hot environments. In most species, the stem has evolved to become photosynthetic and succulent, while the leaves have evolved into spines. Many species are used for ornamental plants, and some are also grown for fodder, forage, fruits, cochineal, and other uses.
Cacti come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. The tallest is Pachycereus pringlei, with a maximum recorded height of 19.2 m, and the smallest is Blossfeldia liliputiana, only about 1 cm in diameter at maturity. Cactus flowers are large, and like the spines arise from distinctive features called areoles.
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