#Plant Adaptations

[multisnapshott]

How Cactus Plants Survive with Little to No Water

Here’s an image of a cactus in a desert, illustrating its water-storing stem, spines, and waxy cuticle. Cacti are some of the most remarkable plants on Earth, thriving in extreme desert environments where water is scarce. Their ability to survive with little to no water is due to a combination of unique adaptations that have evolved over time. Let’s explore the key strategies cacti use to…

[reasonsforhope]

Pictured: Luis Cassiano is the founder of Teto Verde Favela, a nonprofit that teaches favela residents in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, how to build their own green roofs as a way to beat the heat. He's photographed at his house, which has a green roof.

Article

"Cassiano is the founder of Teto Verde Favela, a nonprofit that teaches favela residents how to build their own green roofs as a way to beat the heat without overloading electrical grids or spending money on fans and air conditioners. He came across the concept over a decade ago while researching how to make his own home bearable during a particularly scorching summer in Rio.

A method that's been around for thousands of years and that was perfected in Germany in the 1960s and 1970s, green roofs weren't uncommon in more affluent neighborhoods when Cassiano first heard about them. But in Rio's more than 1,000 low-income favelas, their high cost and heavy weight meant they weren't even considered a possibility.

That is, until Cassiano decided to team up with a civil engineer who was looking at green roofs as part of his doctoral thesis to figure out a way to make them both safe and affordable for favela residents. Over the next 10 years, his nonprofit was born and green roofs started popping up around the Parque Arará community, on everything from homes and day care centers, to bus stops and food trucks.

When Gomes da Silva heard the story of Teto Verde Favela, he decided then and there that he wanted his home to be the group's next project, not just to cool his own home, but to spread the word to his neighbors about how green roofs could benefit their community and others like it.

Pictured: Jessica Tapre repairs a green roof in a bus stop in Benfica, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Relief for a heat island

Like many low-income urban communities, Parque Arará is considered a heat island, an area without greenery that is more likely to suffer from extreme heat. A 2015 study from the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro showed a 36-degree difference in land surface temperatures between the city's warmest neighborhoods and nearby vegetated areas. It also found that land surface temperatures in Rio's heat islands had increased by 3 degrees over the previous decade.

That kind of extreme heat can weigh heavily on human health, causing increased rates of dehydration and heat stroke; exacerbating chronic health conditions, like respiratory disorders; impacting brain function; and, ultimately, leading to death.

But with green roofs, less heat is absorbed than with other low-cost roofing materials common in favelas, such as asbestos tiles and corrugated steel sheets, which conduct extreme heat. The sustainable infrastructure also allows for evapotranspiration, a process in which plant roots absorb water and release it as vapor through their leaves, cooling the air in a similar way as sweating does for humans.

The plant-covered roofs can also dampen noise pollution, improve building energy efficiency, prevent flooding by reducing storm water runoff and ease anxiety.

"Just being able to see the greenery is good for mental health," says Marcelo Kozmhinsky, an agronomic engineer in Recife who specializes in sustainable landscaping. "Green roofs have so many positive effects on overall well-being and can be built to so many different specifications. There really are endless possibilities.""

Pictured: Summer heat has been known to melt water tanks during the summer in Rio, which runs from December to March. Pictured is the water tank at Luis Cassiano's house. He covered the tank with bidim, a lightweight material conducive for plantings that will keep things cool.

A lightweight solution

But the several layers required for traditional green roofs — each with its own purpose, like insulation or drainage — can make them quite heavy.

For favelas like Parque Arará, that can be a problem.

"When the elite build, they plan," says Cassiano. "They already consider putting green roofs on new buildings, and old buildings are built to code. But not in the favela. Everything here is low-cost and goes up any way it can."

Without the oversight of engineers or architects, and made with everything from wood scraps and daub, to bricks and cinder blocks, construction in favelas can't necessarily bear the weight of all the layers of a conventional green roof.

That's where the bidim comes in. Lightweight and conducive to plant growth — the roofs are hydroponic, so no soil is needed — it was the perfect material to make green roofs possible in Parque Arará. (Cassiano reiterates that safety comes first with any green roof he helps build. An engineer or architect is always consulted before Teto Verde Favela starts a project.)

And it was cheap. Because of the bidim and the vinyl sheets used as waterproof screening (as opposed to the traditional asphalt blanket), Cassiano's green roofs cost just 5 Brazilian reais, or $1, per square foot. A conventional green roof can cost as much as 53 Brazilian reais, or $11, for the same amount of space.

"It's about making something that has such important health and social benefits possible for everyone," says Ananda Stroke, an environmental engineering student at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro who volunteers with Teto Verde Favela. "Everyone deserves to have access to green roofs, especially people who live in heat islands. They're the ones who need them the most." ...

It hasn't been long since Cassiano and the volunteers helped put the green roof on his house, but he can already feel the difference. It's similar, says Gomes da Silva, to the green roof-covered moto-taxi stand where he sometimes waits for a ride.

"It used to be unbearable when it was really hot out," he says. "But now it's cool enough that I can relax. Now I can breathe again."

-via NPR, January 25, 2025

[1800-lemon-boy]

Friendly reminder that in the lightning thief musical the first song(the day I got expelled) doesn’t even start with Percy.

It starts with Luke.

Because in all actuality the story started with Luke.

<33

[mrbluesummers-moved]

I'm too tired to write the full Essay™, but someone said in the tags that Stampede took away Knives' fear and it made me realize that the core issue I have with Trigun Stampede is the fact that the characters lack the emotional depth of Trigun Maximum. Like, I'm enjoying Stampede, and it's emotional, but Knives and Vash especially have had their emotional complexity watered down in comparison to the manga.

In the manga, they were as much at war with themselves as they were with each other and world around them. Knives was expressive, animated, and always playing up the megalomaniac god complex in public, but in private he was exhausted and scared and even expressed guilt towards his sisters for being careless in how he orchestrated the fall. Vash was an upbeat pacifist who was constantly fighting his own urge to take the "easy" way out and kill to solve problems.

It's what made the manga so heartbreaking. Neither of them were entirely right, but neither of them were entirely wrong. Knives shouldn't try a genocide, but he was also a deeply traumatized child who was shown how cruel humans could be to plants. Vash should try to do as much good in the world as he can, but holding onto the ideals of pacifism in a hostile environment does more harm than good and he learns that when he's finally pushed to the point where he has to choose between killing and saving someone important to him.

I don't think it's impossible for Stampede to recover in Season 2, but the foundations aren't great. Changing Nai to being cold as child seems like such a small change, but Knives starting out as the optimist who loved humanity is so central to that internal conflict... I don't know. Maybe they'll come back to the point of Rem being important to Knives and make use of the fact that he intended for her to survive and that might save it. We'll have to see.

[zosonils]

top man ain't shit i bet i could beat up top man. most robot masters make me go well that is a whole robot so i could not fight that guy but i feel completely confident saying that i could shove top man in a locker with my weak vitamin d deficient human gamer arms. no lemon shooter, no hard knuckle, just my bare shitty meat hands against two attacks mcgee. my mum's dog could beat up top man. my turtle could beat up top man. more like bottom man stupid gay ass orange nerd. i'll kick his ass

[mist-the-wannabe-linguist]

I've already talked about papyrus as a Pern-friendly alternative to paper given the problem of growing enough wood on a planet periodically hit by life-destroying fungus but I've thought about wood some more and realized - this is the kind of setting that would make use of a Fuck Ton Of Bamboo

It grows super fast, is ready for harvest in as early as three years and can be used for all sorts of stuff (except things that would require hard timber wood). Construction, utensils and tableware, fishing rods, furniture, paper, sprouts for eating and so much more

Also they definitely grow hemp on Pern for textiles, rope, oil etc

Bamboo and hemp in particular definitely feel like plants the colonists would take along for settling an alien planet considering their rapid growth speed and wide variety of uses

[psychotrenny]

I like to imagine that Phoenixes are not birds but in fact Pyrophilic Plants that convergently evolved to take Avian form. They hold their seed within their body and the fiery end of the old Phoenix provides the trigger for the new one to germinate (producing a nice fertile bed of ash in the process)

[ruvviks]

coming up with zombie apocalypse stories is always fun because you can just say whatever and people will just have to take your word for it

[reasonsforhope]

"Helio da Silva, a retired business executive from Brazil, single-handedly planted over 41,000 trees in his hometown of Sao Paulo over the last two decades.

Flying over the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo, it’s tough to miss the 3.2-kilometers-long and 100-meter-wide green strip of trees wedged between two of the city’s busiest roads. It is known as Tiquatira Linear Park, and it is the work of a single man who worked tirelessly for over 20 years in order to transform a previously dilapidated area into an actual jungle within the urban jungle that is Sao Paulo. Originally from the town of Promissao, about 500km from Sao Paulo, Helio da Silva was a successful business executive for many years, but after retiring, he took it upon himself to transform the degraded banks of the Tiquatira River into a green oasis for his community. He started planting trees there in 2003 and hasn’t stopped since.

73-year-old da Silva recently told AFP that he wanted to leave a legacy to the city that adopted him decades ago. Within the first four years of his epic project, he single-handedly planted 5,000 trees in an area that had long been abandoned and known to be frequented by drug dealers and users. His impressive feat prompted the municipality of Sao Paulo to recognize his efforts and acknowledge the area as the first linear park in Sao Paulo. This only emboldened da Silva, who continued planting native trees.

By 2020, Helio had planted more than 25,047 trees over a 3.2-km-long area, achieving a survival rate of 88 percent. For every 12 trees, he planted a fruit-bearing species in the hopes of attracting birds and animals to his green oasis. His bet paid off, as according to the municipality, 45 types of birds have been identified in the park. Today, the Tiquatira Linear Park numbers over 41,000 individual trees, and Helio da Silva doesn’t plan on stopping planting until he reaches at least 50,000 of them.

“My motivation comes from the trees themselves because trees give us flowers and fruits, absorb rainwater, attract birds and provide us with wonderful shade and fresh air,” da Silva told Common Earth.

The retired executive estimates that he spent about $7,000 per year on his tree-planting efforts since 2022, but the way he sees it, it was a worthwhile investment for himself, his family and the whole of Sao Paulo. Plus, he saved a lot of money by planting the trees himself.

Once labeled as crazy for spending most of his time planting trees in an area most people avoided, Helio da Silva is now hailed as a local hero. He sometimes receives help from like-minded nature lovers, but he is still the driving force behind this amazing project. Every Sunday, he comes to Tiquatira Park to plant more trees.

Over the years, the city gym and playground equipment, tables, benches, toilets, and Tiquatira Linear Park eventually became one of Sao Paulo’s most popular areas."

-Article via OddityCentral, October 4, 2024. Video via France24, September 26, 2024.

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Note: ONE SINGLE PERSON CAN MAKE A SUCH A DIFFERENCE

[samuelroukin]

love having plants because people will go ‘oh you have so many you really have a green thumb huh’ no sir i’m just good at making it a slow and torturous death

[that-one-cat-meow]

Made the whole list(s) of what I need for my betta fish

They will survive the longest, I PROMISE YOU THAT

And Yes, I did write all those things in tags, why do you ask? (I spend damn 20 minutes watching one video about it)

[andreamland]

Okay, to my friend @triplese7en who’s a PVZ fan, hear me out. Seth Rogen as Crazy Dave!

[silvershewolf247]

Glen and Caroline gardening in the land around Andy's house.

(Glenda has a little section of the garden where they grow pot *Paul gave them seeds*)

[hiccupbutpurple]

Why tf are scauldrons eating blue oleander

[dougdimmadodo]

Antarctic Pearlwort (Colobanthus quitensis)

Family: Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae)

IUCN Conservation Status: Unassessed

Brutal cold, intense winds and a lack of terrestrial resource makes Antarctica by far the least biodiverse continent on earth, and while land plants are particularly rare in the area surrounding the south pole, two species of highly specialised flowering plants have managed to survive; a tough, low-growing species of grass called Antarctic Hairgrass, and a small, superficially moss-like relative of campions, chickweeds, stitchworts and pinks; the Antarctic Pearlwort. Found mainly in coastal areas where they typically grow attached to sturdy rocks, members of this species grow low to the ground to avoid being uprooted by wind, possessing thick, waxy leaves to reduce water loss through salt spray, wind and evaporation resulting from sunlight reflected from snow, and produce antifreeze-like proteins in their leaves to prevent their internal stores of water from freezing and damaging their tissues. Although they produce pale yellow flowers Antarctic Pearlworts cannot rely on animal-based pollination (with Antarctica's only insect, the Antarctic Midge, being flightless and spending much of its life underground,) and as such they instead allow their pollen to be carried away by the wind, fertilizing the flowers of other members of their species and allowing for the production of small, waxy fruits (which, in the absence of terrestrial frugivores to swallow them, drop their seeds to germinate wherever they fall.) As anthropogenic climate change causes increases in average temperature across Antarctica, Antarctic Pearlwort populations are rapidly increasing as the conditions around them slowly become more conducive to plant growth. As such, monitoring the population size and current range of this species can provide useful insight into how drastically the earth's poles are changing.

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Image Source: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/428806-Colobanthus-quitensis

[briarpatch-kids]

My plant breeding blorbo is going to be at a seed swap in February... I MUST GO