Plants adaptations: types and examples

Plants must adapt to its survival environment, like the rest of living beings. They have to adjust their structures and metabolism to factors such as the soils, the water, the temperature, the lightetc. Some of the adaptations that they have managed to make the plants throughout their evolution are:

• Thorns.
• Acicular or needle -shaped leaves.
• Very large leaves to receive more sunlight.
• Fleshy leaves.
• Fleshy stems.
• Thick roots, such as tubers or rhizomes.
• Very extensive roots.
• Roots adapted to being always submerged in water, with or without contact with the ground.
• Rotary movement to get more sunlight.
• Reduce your metabolism to minimums.

We recommend you read this other article about the origin and evolution of plants.

Among the many factors to which plants must adapt in their different environments, one of the most important is undoubtedly the soil, which is the source of minerals and support for most species. Here the pH of the soil, its porosity, its level of permeability or its salinity, among others, influence.

• We find like that Calcícolas plantswhich are those that grow in Alkaline soilswith a pH below 7. Their adaptations are aimed at getting iron in that environment, necessary for chlorophyll synthesis.
• At the other end are the Silicich plantswho live in Acid soils with pH above 7. These types of soils tend to be a sandy type, so they are poor in nutrients. Some examples of plants that adapt To this type of soils are chestnut and cork oak.
• We also have the halophile plantsthat grow in soils with high salinity, which makes it difficult to capture water.
• In addition, there are also the Gipsícolas plantsthat live in land high in plaster.
• The Nitrophil plants They develop in soils with excess nutrients that would poxicate without adapting species.

In this area, the Aquatic plants adaptationsthat grow floating on water or submerged. These plants do not need to develop complex water collection systems, but in return they have to adapt to get their flowers to remain above water to facilitate pollination, for example. Here you can learn more about +50 aquatic plants: names, characteristics and images.

In general terms, plants can only survive between 0 ºC and 45 ° C. Below the freezing point, the water freezes and the plant has no way of absorbing, eliminating or processing it in another way, while above 45 ºC the vegetable is paralyzed due to cessation of operation of its proteins.

Depending on the temperature range that a plant can support, they are classified as Euriterms plants and in Stenothermal plants. The first survive in a wide range of temperatures, while that of the latter is very small, such as that of the Tropical plants or their own Very cold areaswhich need greater specialization.

When a plant needs to adapt to the cold, what usually does tools or systems to reduce its metabolism as much as possible, especially during the lowest temperatures. They tend to be deciduous and small species to make freezing difficult. Many of them complete their life cycle in less than a year, to die in winter and pass the cold time in the form of a seed. In this other post you can know the deciduous flora of the deciduous forests: characteristics, flora and fauna. On the other hand, in this other link, you will find tropical flora, adapted to high temperatures and high humidity of tropical forests: characteristics, flora and fauna.

The amount of light available is another vital factor for plants, since without it they cannot make Photosynthesis and elaborate their necessary nutrients. The heliophile plants are those that need a great light contribution to develop, while SCIOPLE PLANTS They thrive in shadow or semi -shade conditions. The former reduce their number of stomata to lose less water when receiving greater solar radiation, while scópiles increase it by not having excess perspiration problems.

In environments of great vegetation, such as tropical jungles, there are a lot of adaptations of plants in the absence of lightsince the competition to get this is very big. Thus appear epiphytic plants that grow on the trunks or branches of other plants instead of the ground. Some examples are:

• The orchids.
• The bromelia.
• Some ferns.

To expand more this knowledge you can enter here and know 25 interior plants that need little light and epiphytic plants: what so, types and examples.

Is called xerophytes To plants that develop and live in very dry environments, that is, it is about desert plants. The adaptations of plants in arid areas As these are very marked, since these are species that need to fight high temperatures and a shortage of water, in many cases, extreme. To do this, they have adapted their leaves to make them very narrow and in many cases turning them into thornsas well as increasing the volume of some parts of its structure, such as stem, root or leaves, so that it becomes a Water warehousethat’s why we talk about succulent plants or crays.

Some Examples of plants adaptations In these cases they are The cactus.

• He Gianta Carnegieaeither Saguaro cactusit is a large tree cactus, endemic to the Sonora desert. This plant, like many crays, has developed a fleshy stem of great thickness, capable of storing a high amount of water inside. In addition, its leaves are thorns that protect it from herbivorous predation and its root system is extraordinarily extensive despite being shallow, in order to absorb the low moisture that the soil contains greater effectiveness. In addition, it exceptionally controls its loss of water by perspiration.
• Other species, such as calls MezquitesThey are trees that develop a high -depth root system, so much that it can reach groundwater sources more than 40 meters deep and can grow again from their roots.

We encourage you to learn more with this post on 25 desert plants.

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