Transcript Plant Adaptations

Plant Adaptations
What does Adaptation mean?
The special characteristics that enable plants and
animals to be successful in a
particular environment are called adaptations.
Adaptations help a plant to:
· Get Sunlight, Water, Air, or Nutrients
· Not be eaten
· Stay put
· Reproduce
Plant Type
Adaptation
Tropical Rainforest
Bark: limits evaporation
Lianas: woody vines that climb to
reach sunlight
Drip Tips: enable raindrops to reach
roots
Buttresses, Prop and Stilt Roots:
give support in shallow, wet soil
Bromeliads: leaves form a tank that
holds water
Epiphytes: don’t require soil,
“air plants”
Carnivorous Plants
Plant Name
Adaptation
Desert
Roots: grow near the surface to collect
rainwater quickly
Thick Stems: to store water
Leaves with hair: help shade the
plant, reducing water loss.
Spines: to discourage animals from
eating plants for water;
Waxy coating on stems and leaves:
help reduce water loss.
Flowers that open at night: lure
pollinators who are more likely to be
active during the cooler night.
Slower growing: requires less
energy. The plants don't have to make
as much food and therefore do not
lose as much water.
Plant Name
Deciduous Forest
Tundra
Adaptation
Deciduous Trees drop their leaves
Broad, thin, light-weight leaves:
capture sunlight
Thick bark: protect against cold
winters
Size:(usually less than 12 inches tall) and
low-growing due to lack of nutrients,
because being close to the ground helps
keep the plants from freezing, and because
the roots cannot penetrate the permafrost.
Plants are dark in color: some are even
red—this helps them absorb solar heat.
Hair: helps keep them warm.
Grow in clumps: protect one another from
the wind and cold.
Dish-like flowers: focusing more solar heat
on the center of the flower, helping the plant
stay warm.
Plant Name
Adaptation
Grassland
Thick bark: resist fire
Roots: resprout after a fire
Roots: extend deep into the ground to
absorb as much moisture as they can
Extensive root systems: prevent grazing
animals from pulling roots out of the ground
Narrow leaves: which lose less water than
broad leaves
Soft stems: enable prairie grasses to bend
in the wind
Taiga
Evergreen: so that plants can
photosynthesize right away when
temperatures rise
needle-like leaves: which shape loses less
water and sheds snow more easily than
broad leaves/ waxy coating prevents
evaporation
Needles are dark in color: allowing more
solar heat to be absorbed
Branches that droop downward: to help
shed excess snow to keep the branches
from breaking
Plant Type
Adaptation
In Water
Underwater leaves and stems:
flexible to move with water currents
Air spaces in their stems: to help
hold the plant up in the water
Roots and root hairs: reduced or
absent; roots only needed for
anchorage, not for absorption of
nutrients and water
Leaves that float atop the water:
exposing themselves to the sunlight
Chlorophyll is restricted to upper
surface of leaves (part that the
sunlight will hit) and the upper surface
is waxy to repel water
Produce seeds that can float