How do cactus get nutrients ?

How do cactus get nutrients? The need for Cacti to adapt to life in very extreme conditions. Often on rocks and gravel, sometimes as epiphytes in the branches of tall trees. In places where daily temperature fluctuations can reach even several dozen degrees.

In an environment where there is generally a shortage of water. Sometimes an excess of water, but only temporary, followed by a long period of drought.

Cacti morphological and physiological attributes

It has led the cacti to produce a series of both morphological and physiological changes in the evolutionary process. Allowing them to exist in such harsh conditions.

Thanks to these adaptations, cacti can effectively compete with other plants for which such conditions are not habitable. Both terrestrial and epiphytic cacti have one problem to solve: quick uptake, storage, and then rational use of water.

It was cacti that mastered water management to perfection. Because any unnecessary loss of it would be an elimination from the evolutionary “race”.

Cacti are typical succulents, sometimes also root plants, but the degree of their succulentism varies between groups. It mainly depends on the degree of alignment in evolutionary development.

One way succulentism evolves in cacti is by the tendency to reduce the evaporation area relative to the total mass. Therefore, cactus shoots have the ratio of their surface area to volume as effective as possible.. The shoot becomes more and more thick and fleshy, it is an excellent water storage center.

Stems of epiphytic cacti take elongated, sometimes flattened, divided shapes. Thorns are often absent or very small. These shoots are mainly focused on water storage, because their roots do not reach the water contained in the soil.

Living in the branches of tall trees, where strong sunlight causes periods of drought. They can effectively compete with other plants that cannot store water.

They do not have to produce strong thorns and wool. Because the sun never reaches here as intensely as in the desert.

Plants that begin to inhabit more extreme ecosystems (quickly drying mountain slopes, deserts) begin to show their succulentism more and more.

They basically produce two shapes of shoots: spherical and cylindrical with a number of variants and forms. It is the shape of the shoot that is most appropriate for a high degree of succulentism.

For plants with a spherical shape, the ratio of the evaporation surface to the mass is the most advantageous. The larger the ball is, the ratio is even more favorable.

In addition to shape, the shoot of the plant produces other adaptations to limit water excretion and protect against intense sun. In all plants, the shoots are covered with a protective tissue, i.e. the epidermis (skin).

How can you tell if a cactus is male or female?

Most plants have a single-layer skin, while some xerophytes have a skin composed of several layers of cells. On the other hand, on the outer walls of the cells of the skin there is a cuticle layer, which forms a protective cuticle layer up to 5 mm thick.

In addition, it has a wax layer and hairs creating a thick cutter. These stem protections limit the heating of internal plant tissues and limit transpiration. They give some cacti interesting color of plants and characteristic white waxy coatings.

The skin contains stomata responsible for gas exchange and transpiration. In cacti there are much less of them than in other plants, they are protected with hairs and waxes.

They are closed in warm weather and open mainly at night. Nevertheless, CAM photosynthesis and gas exchange take place. We associate a typical cactus with thorns. These are the formations of the transformation of leaves. For us, they are only decorative and decide about the attractiveness of a given cactus.

For the plant, on the other hand, they are an important element that distracts the sun and protects the stem from excessive storage. In some species, they take over the physiological function of replenishing water losses.

They can extract it from fog or dew. The thorns mechanically protect the plant, which for many animals would be an excellent reservoir of water for use during drought.

In cacti there is a relationship between the number of thorns and exposure to the sun. The most chafing are desert cacti, where the plant can count on the shade from other plants to a small extent, hence it produced a rich planting which was a substitute for shade for the stem.

Some species have more or less visible shoot structures called ribs and nipples. It seems that while they increase the surface of the shoot and may expose the plant to additional water losses through evaporation, they essentially play an important role in shading the shoot from excessive sun exposure.

It is a consequence of their anatomical structure, shape, location on the shoot and having specific additional structures (halos, axillas, thorns). As the sun moves around the clock, some parts of these structures are intensely illuminated, while others remain in the shadow.

How cactus get nutrients?

Finally, the most important adaptation of cacti to rational water management at the level of plant physiological processes: CAM Photosynthesis.

The essence of the photosynthesis process in all plants is the same. Plant intakes CO2 from the air and converts it into sugars with the participation of H2O, light energy and chlorophyll. Two important facts should be noted: the plant absorbs CO2 from the environment through the stomata, and it can be bound into sugars only with the participation of light.

By opening the stomata, gas exchange and transpiration take place, which is the more intense the warmer it is in the plant’s surroundings. For succulents, opening the stomatal apparatus during the day would run the risk of completely depleting the water supply.

At night, ecosystems with cacti are not so warm, and photosynthesis requires solar energy, which is available only during the day.

So how did succulents solve these problems? Creating a time separation of these processes into: Night -> Carboxylation – Day -> Calvin Cycle

At night, there are favorable conditions for opening the stomata, therefore the CO2 taken at night must be stored until the sun comes out. Plants convert it into simple organic acids by storing them in water tissues.

The cell juice is then very acidic. On the other hand, during the day, CO2 uptake stops, the complicated chemical processes of CO2 separation begin and the sugar transformation begins in the Calvin cycle.

This organization of photosynthetic processes was a key evolutionary achievement, giving cacti an excellent mechanism for the colonization of dry and hot terrestrial ecosystems.