Transcript:
Hello, friends. My name is Bertie. And today we are going to learn about the cactus plant, which is one of the lone survivors of heat introduction to cacti. We have all heard of this strange plant called as cactus. A cactus is a kind of plant, which is adapted to living in very hot and dry weather conditions. These types of plants are called as xerophyte’s. You might have noticed how I’ve written cacti instead of cactus. That is no mistake. Cactus is the plural form of the word cacti. There are over 2 000 species of cactus. Did you know that habitat of a cacti where do cactus live? Of course they live in deserts or at least most of them live naturally in deserts, not deserts, which you eat deserts are extremely hot places and they do not have a lot of water, but occasionally there are small pools and some vegetation around them. These are called as Oasis, Even if the area is boiling hot in the day. It is chilling cold at night. This extreme climate is because of the absence of clouds, which cannot form without water. How do cacti survive? It must be really difficult to live in such a climatic condition. And yes, it is. That’s why the cactus have adapted. What do I mean by the adaptation of Cactus? Well, these plants have shown some change in their structure to help them to be better suited to their surrounding environment. Let’s have a look at what are the different features of a cactus plant adaptation stems, The outer skin of the stem is thick and waxy so that the plant does not end up losing precious water to evaporation, large and fleshy stems Help the cactus to store water adaptation roots cat tie have two types of roots they are long and shallow roots, which spread over a huge surface for any sign of water and deep roots for groundwater. Its question time do cacti perform the process of photosynthesis and where are the leaves of this plant? Well, I found out the answers so here. They are yes, indeed, cacti performed the process of photosynthesis with their stems. That’s why the stems are green because they have chlorophyll inside them, but it will be wrong to say that they do not have leaves at all. So let’s have a look at where those leaves have gone. Adaptation leaves leaves of the cacti are changed completely to form spines. That’s right, those spiky parts are really the leaves, so it won’t be wrong. If I write it like that, why there are two reasons? Firstly, these spines can stop any thirsty animal from chewing off all that precious water in that stem, it doesn’t mean to say that the animals haven’t adapted so that they can bigger the spines, but that’s a whole different topic. Let’s have a look at the second reason. Transpiration, the cactus is enemy. Transpiration is the process by which the water leaves the leaf through this tomato assume in the form of water vapor, which is a gas, but that means loss of water for the cacti, which it cannot allow that’s why it requires to minimize the total surface area of the leaf so that the water cannot escape and the spines do precisely that as they do not have a lot of total surface area. You can see that for yourself. In the two diagrams, given above where the one on the right is a magnified image of a spine and the one on the left. Is that of a normal leaf? Its quiz time fill in the blanks. The leaves of a cactus plant are modified into dash. There are dash types of roots of a cactus. The small pools with some vegetation around them, which are located in deserts, are called as dash lets. Have a look at the solutions. The leave of a cactus plant are modified into spines. There are two types of roots of a cactus. The small pools with some vegetation around them, which are located in deserts, are called as oasis. Select the correct option. What are the modified leaves of the cactus called a thorn’s b spines. See, the leaves are not modified. Got your answer, that’s. Great, let’s have a look at the solution. Spines are the modified leaves of the cactus. The two types of fruits of the cactus are blue and red, porous and non-porou’s shallow and deep lets. Have a look at the answer. This is a really easy, one shallow and deep The outer stem of cactus are dashed to avoid losing precious water, A thick and waxy B, wet and porous C thin and hard. Well, the answer is thin and hard, right, no. Oh, um, then. How about chicken? Waxy, that’s right. Thank you for watching this video. If you have any questions or suggestions, don’t hesitate to put it down in the comment box. Also, if you want to check out any nice adaptations of animals, you can click on the I button for a playlist until the next session bye.