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Succulent plants have thickened stems, or leaves, such as this Aloe. In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants with parts that are thickened, fleshy, and engorged, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil conditions. The word succulent comes from the Latin word sucus, meaning "juice" or "sap". [1]
For example, almost all cacti are succulents, meaning they have thickened, fleshy parts adapted to store water. Unlike many other succulents, the stem is the only part of most cacti where this vital process takes place. Most species of cacti have lost true leaves, retaining only spines, which are highly modified
Leaves of most plants include a flat structure called the blade or lamina supported by a network of veins, a petiole and a leaf base; [1] but not all leaves are flat, some are cylindrical. [ citation needed ] Leaves may be simple, with a single leaf blade, or compound, with several leaflets .
Dry, one-seeded indehiscent fruit [11] in which the true fruit is not the so-called "berry", but the achenes, which are the so-called "seeds" on the infructescence, e.g. in the genus Fragaria. acicular Slender or needle-shaped. [11] See also Leaf shape. acropetal Moving from roots to leaves, e.g. of molecular signals in plants. acrophyll
The leaves also possess vascular bundles, which are generally visible as veins, whose patterns are called venation. Leaves tend to have a shorter life span than the stems or branches that bear them, and when they fall, an area at the attachment zone, called the abscission zone leaves a scar on the stem.
The genus has been described as containing up to 600 species, subsequently reduced to 400–500. They are leaf succulents found primarily in the Northern Hemisphere, but extending into the southern hemisphere in Africa and South America. The plants vary from annual and creeping herbs to shrubs. The plants have water-storing leaves.
Unwieldy, top-heavy succulents and plants that are plagued by root rot, soggy soil, or extensive pest infestations may need to be repotted. For best results, choose a pot with drainage holes that ...
Areoles represent highly specialized branches on cacti. They evolved as abortive branch buds while their spines evolved as vestigial leaves. [2] In branched cacti, such as Opuntioidiae and the saguaro, new branches grow from areoles, because that is where the buds are. The development of the areole seems to have been an important element in the ...