A cactus (plural: cacti, difficulté, or cactus) is a member of the pink family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 overal with a few 1750 known kinds of the order Caryophyllales. The word "cactus" came about, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek??????, kaktos, a name formerly employed by Theophrastus for a spiny flower whose identity is not certain. Cacti occur in a variety of shapes and sizes. Most cacti stay in g?te subject to at least some drought. Many stay in extremely dry environments, even being found in the Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on earth. Cacti show many adaptations to save normal water. Almost all cacti are succulents, meaning they have thickened, fleshy parts tailored to maintain water. As opposed to many other succulents, the stem is the single part of most cacti where this essential process happens. Most species of cacti taking true leaves, retaining only spines, which are highly modified leaves. As well as protecting against herbivores, spines help prevent water loss by reducing air-flow near the cactus and providing some shade. Inside the deficiency of leaves, enlarged comes carry out photosynthesis. Cacti are native to the Americas, ranging from Patagonia in the south to parts of western Canada in the north--except for Rhipsalis baccifera, which also grows in Africa and Sri Lanka.
Cactus spines are produced from specialised structures called areoles, a kind of highly reduced branch. Areoles is surely a figuring out feature of cacti. Mainly because well as spines, areoles promote flowers, which are usually tubular and multipetaled. Many cacti have brief growing seasons and long dormancies, and are able to react quickly to the rainfall, helped by an comprehensive but relatively shallow root system that quickly absorb any normal water achieving the ground surface. Cactus stems are often ribbed or fluted, which allows them to grow and contract easily for quick water absorption after rain, followed by long drought periods. Like other succulent plants, most cacti employ a special system called "crassulacean acid metabolism" (CAM) The plant stores the and also carbon dioxide it takes in as malic acid, maintaining it until daylight comes back, and only then using it in photosynthesis. Mainly because transpiration happens during the cooler, more humid evening hours, water loss is significantly reduced.
Many smaller cacti have globe-shaped comes, combining the highest possible volume for water safe-keeping, with the lowest possible surface area for normal water loss from transpiration. The tallest free-standing cactus is Pachycereus pringlei, with a maximum recorded height of 19. 2 m (63 ft), and the tiniest is Blossfeldia liliputiana, no more than 1 centimeter (0. 4 in) in diameter at maturity. A fully grown saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) is said to be capable of absorb as much as 200 Circumstance. S. gallons (760 m; 170 imp gal) of water during a rainstorm. A couple of species differ significantly in features from almost all of the family. At least superficially, plants of the genus Pereskia resemble other forest and shrubs growing around them. They have continual leaves, and when elderly, bark-covered stems.They, too, have many adaptations for water conservation. Pereskia is considered near the our ancestors species from where all cacti evolved. In tropical parts,almost leaf-like in appearance, with fewer or even no spines, including the well-known Christmas difficulté or Thanksgiving cactus (in the genus Schlumbergera).
Cacti have a variety of uses: many species are being used as ornamental plants, others are grown for hitch or forage, and others for food (particularly their fruit). Cochineal is the product of an insect pest that lives on some cacti.
Many succulent crops in the Old and New World, such as some Euphorbiaceae (euphorbias), keep a striking resemblance to cacti, and may wrongly be called "cactus" in common usage.
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