The plant world is very, very wide, it can already be very complex when you want to discover the secrets that surround it. One of the most curious and interesting topics is that of CAM plantsSince by living in very hot areas with little rainfall, they have developed a survival mechanism that makes them unique.
If you like succulents and / or plants native to warm and rather dry areas, chances are you have some in your garden or patio. Do you want to know them better?
What are CAM plants?
These types of plants are natural survivors; They have to be if they want to live in desert, or near desert areas. Maximum temperatures can be very high, over 40ºC, which added to the fact that it hardly rains, they have had no choice but to do everything possible to avoid losing water. And that is complicated in itself, because the mere fact of breathing already entails an expense.
To get it, developed what we call the acid metabolism of crassulaceae (CAM). It is called “of the crassulaceae” because it is in these plants where it was discovered for the first time; Today it is known that many plants that live in such places are CAMs.
What are their characteristics?
The vast majority of plants that we know absorb and fix carbon dioxide (CO2) during the day, but in CAM they separate these two processes: during the night they absorb the CO2 they have used in photosynthesis and store it in the vacuoles in the form of malic acid (closed or limited compartments that serve as containers, present in the cells of plant beings); the next day the CO2 is released and is used for the formation of carbohydrates during photosynthesis.
Examples of CAM plants
This mechanism was verified in 34 plant families of 343 genus. It is believed to be found in more than 16 species. The main and most popular CAM families are:
What do you think of this topic? Interesting, don’t you think?
