What kind plants live in the desert

The dry, barren stems become plump with moisture, lush leaves appear, and bright crimson flowers bloom. The yellow palo verde is a large desert tree and is one of the most common trees native to the Sonoran Desert. This species of palo verde tree usually grows to around 16 ft. The yellow palo verde is a deciduous tree that loses its leaves in hot, dry seasons. This tree can endure the harsh desert conditions because its green bark carries out photosynthesis.

As with many desert plants, flowers appear after rainfall. One of the most stunning flowering desert plants is the Mojave aster—also called the Mojave woody aster. Native to the Mojave Desert, hence the common name, the plant produces large flowers similar to daisies. The petals look like lavender and white rays emitting from a yellow center. Jade plants—also called money trees —are easy-to-care-for houseplants that grow outdoors in desert environments.

Their tolerance for arid conditions is the reason why these plants hardly require watering indoors. Jade plants are small shrubs that can also look like miniature trees.

Although these plants can grow in the shade, they need plenty of sunshine to help them thrive. Growing indoors, people put these potted plants in auspicious places as they are said to be plants that bring good luck. Yellow bells or yellow trumpetbush is a flowering desert shrub that is drought and heat tolerant.

As its name suggests, the yellow bells plant produces brightly-colored golden-yellow flowers in the shape of a funnel. The emerald green foliage turns into a mass of yellow color. This is an excellent shrub for desert landscaping if you need a full-sun flowering ornamental plant.

Pictures of desert palms gracing beaches are classic images of tropical beaches. However, many palms are suitable for dry, arid conditions of Arizona and other southwestern states. Aloe vera is a species of succulent plant that thrives in hot, arid climates. Pictures of aloe vera growing in deserts show these fleshy-leafed plants growing in bone-dry, sandy soil surrounded by rocks. There are over species of aloe, with aloe vera being one of the most common.

Most types of aloe plants grow in a rosette shape. You can also grow aloe vera indoors in pots. Texas sage is a small, compact shrub that produces purple flowers. Other names for this desert-dwelling shrub are wild lilac, ash-bush, Texas silverleaf, and purple sage. You can use this ornamental flowering bush as a specimen plant or along borders in a desert landscape in your backyard. Bottlebrush plants thrive in hot, full sun and can endure minimal watering. These small shrubs are native to Australia, where there grow in various climates, including desert regions.

These desert plants have colorful red flowers that contrast with the light green needle-like foliage. The flowers grow in the shape of bottle brushes. Learn about other amazing drought tolerant plants that hardly need any watering. Some plants that do not normally shed their leaves have resinous coatings that retard water loss e. The roots of drought tolerant shrubs and trees are extensive compared to those of plants in wetter climates, covering an area up to twice the diameter of the canopy.

They exploit the soil at greater depth than the roots of succulents; sometimes they extend to extreme depths e. Most of a mesquite's roots, however, are within three feet 0. Rooting depth controls opportunities for growth cycles. In contrast to the succulents' shallow-rooted strategy, a substantial rain is required to wet the deeper root zone of shrubs and trees. After a soaking rain has fallen, shrubs such as brittlebush and creosote take a few weeks to resume full growth from deep dormancy.

The tradeoff between this strategy and that of succulents is that once the deeper soil is wetted by several rains it stays moist much longer than the surface layer, supporting several weeks of growth. Succulents can absorb water only when the soil is nearly saturated. In contrast drought tolerant plants can absorb water from soil that is much drier.

Similarly these plants can photosynthesize with low leaf moisture contents that would prove fatal to most plants. Annual plants escape unfavorable conditions by not existing. They mature in a single season, then die after channeling all of their life energy into producing seeds instead of reserving some for continued survival.

Most Sonoran Desert annuals will germinate only during a narrow window in the fall, after summer heat has waned and before winter cold arrives.

During this window of opportunity there must be a soaking rain of at least one inch for most species. This combination of requirements is survival insurance: an inch of rain in the mild weather of fall will provide enough soil moisture that the germinating seeds will probably mature and produce seeds even if almost no more rain falls in that season.

There is still further insurance: even under the best conditions not all of the seeds will germinate; some remain dormant.

Although the mechanisms are not known, a percentage of any year's crop of desert lupine seeds will not germinate until they are ten years old. Seedlings rapidly produce rosettes of leaves during the mild fall weather, remain flat against the ground as they grow more slowly through the winter, and bolt into flower in the spring. Many desert animals, such as the fennec fox , are nocturnal, coming out to hunt only when the brutal sun has descended. Some animals, like the desert tortoise in the southwestern United States, spend much of their time underground.

Most desert birds are nomadic, crisscrossing the skies in search of food. And among insects, the Namibian desert beetle can harvest fog from the air for water. Because of their very special adaptations, desert animals are extremely vulnerable to changes in their habitat. Desert plants may have to go without fresh water for years at a time. Some plants have adapted to the arid climate by growing long roots that tap water from deep underground.

Other plants, such as cacti, have special means of storing and conserving water. Some of the world's semi-arid regions are turning into desert at an alarming rate. This process, known as desertification, is not caused by drought , but usually arises from deforestation and the demands of human populations that settle on the semi-arid lands.

The pounding of the soil by the hooves of livestock in ranching, for example, may degrade the soil and encourage erosion by wind and water. In northern China, growing urbanization, which left much of the land unprotected against wind erosion and the buildup of sediment from the surrounding desert, created a desertification problem, prompting the government to build a " great green wall " as a hedge against encroaching desert.

In existing deserts, some species are in peril because of climate change. Global warming threatens to change the ecology of deserts : Higher temperatures may produce more wildfires that alter desert landscapes by eliminating slow-growing trees and shrubs and replacing them with fast-growing grasses.

Many desert plants can live for hundreds of years. But in California, the iconic Joshua tree—the oldest found was 1, years old— may not survive a hotter climate , scientists warn. If they don't survive, that could affect species such as the yucca moth, which lays its eggs inside the Joshua tree flower. Desert bird species could also be in danger from climate change, as heat waves lead to lethal dehydration. Paradoxically, the effort to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by expanding solar energy has also created some tensions for desert habitats.

Queen Palm trees can grow one of its trunks to be as tall as 20 meters. They are usually chosen for areas with landscape and help add a tropical ambiance to a garden. To see the complete list and description of each trees, just click the button bellow the other 33 lists. The salvia flower plants exist in dry or moist areas where the temperature is normally hot. The plant is native to a mountainous area of Oaxaca, Mexico called the Sierra Mazateca.

The Ocotillo, known as Fouquieria splendens also has many other names such as candlewood, coachwhip, desert coral, Jacob cactus, Jacob staff, and vine cactus. It is made up of three species which are splendens engelms, breviflora Hendrickson and campanulata Henrickson. The ocotillo is a strangely shaped plant that is a native to the Southwestern part of the United States.

The plant usually looks like a dead brownish bundle of a stick in the absence of rain but on a closer look, some of its parts are actually green. But as soon as the rain falls, its ovate leaves spring out intermittently along the long branches and can remain for many months. To see the complete list and description of each shrubs and grass, just click the button bellow the other 13 lists.

A gentle giant that stands up to incredible climate conditions, poor soil and desert critters. The edible fruit matures in the summer and is enjoyed by birds and other desert dwellers. The Golden Barrel cactus, also known as golden ball cactus with a botanical name Echinocactus is a popular slow growing desert plant known for its remarkable golden spines.

The golden barrel is native to both South and North America. The plant is usually very scarce and endangered but can live for up to 30 years in the wild.

It is usually found growing in volcanic rocks on slopes that has an altitude of about meters. The Dasylirion wheeleri, popularly known as the Desert Spoon, is a species of plants in the asparagus family. It is an evergreen shrub characterized by a single unbranched trunk and a slender, grey-green leaf blade with a toothed margin.

It also has a characteristic flowering stem which rises above the foliage and is topped by a plume if small, straw colored flowers. It is typically grown as an ornamental plant, and may be used in the production of an alcoholic drink called Sotol.

The Aloe vera is one of the most popular plants in the world. It is an evergreen perennial from the Arabian Peninsula, which has been cultivated around the world for medicinal and ornamental purposes. The used for a wide range of beauty products including skin lotions and ointments as a result of its medically active photochemically. The plant itself is stemless, with thick, fleshy green leaves which have serrated leaves and pendulous flowers. The Prickly Pear Cactus is a member of the cactus family most notable for its pink or reddish fruit.