Student Article

Deserts might look empty, but they’re full of life — including plants with incredible survival skills. These plants live in dry, hot places like Africa and the Americas, and even cold deserts like Antarctica. Each one has special ways of finding water, storing it, or using very little of it to stay alive.

From spiky to sweet: meet the desert stars

Take the Joshua tree from the U.S. Mojave Desert. It can grow up to 50 feet (15 meters) tall and live for hundreds of years. Then there’s the prickly pear cactus, which not only stores water in its thick pads but also produces tasty fruit used in cooking.

Smart ways to get water

The tara tree in South America captures fog with its leaves, and the saxaul tree in Asia’s Gobi Desert has sponge-like bark that stores water. The western juniper cuts off water to its own branches during droughts to preserve the rest of the tree.

A tree that clones?

In the Sahara Desert, Laperinne’s olive tree makes new trees by cloning itself. This method helps the tree survive in harsh conditions, but it also means the trees are all very similar, which can be a problem for long-term survival.

Even cold deserts have plant life

In Antarctica, the pearlwort plant survives freezing temperatures and grows without any insects to pollinate it.

Helping people and animals

Some desert plants help humans and animals survive. Date palms, for example, have been grown for thousands of years for their sweet fruit. Welwitschia, a plant from Africa’s Namib Desert, provides food and moisture to animals like oryx and zebras.

These plants prove that nature is full of surprises. Even in the toughest environments, life finds a way to grow.

© Jo Caird / Our Media