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Article: The soil ... it's alive: how do desert plants survive baking heat and constant drought? With the help of cryptobiotic friends!
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- March 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Cryptobiotic? It sounds like something out of a graveyard horror movie. Actually, the word means "hidden life" (from the Greek words kruptos and biotikos). Invisible to the casual observer, dense mats of cryptobiotic organisms, including cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, green algae, and microfungi, mix with sand and clay to form a life-sustaining soil in desert regions. Without it, a lot of desert plants wouldn't survive.
Imagine yourself as a desert plant exposed to constant heat that threatens to bake you dry and wind that blows sand out from under your roots. You would have a hard time making it. Desert heat and sand are not hospitable to vegetation that needs ...