The term ‘succulent’ is applied to certain genera and species of juicy plants which are remarkable for their fleshy leaves or stems, or both.
Succulents are accommodating plants, they are neither difficult nor demanding in their requirements and even in a limited space one can grow and study a large number of species.
In their native habitat, they are usually exposed to long periods of excessive sunlight and drought.
Colorful
They are distributed in the arid deserts, on high mountains or in cold regions where the absorption of water is rendered difficult owing to the intense cold, amongst waste rocky plateaus and crevices of rocks in which rainwater drains quickly and which are almost completely lacking soil.
Ornamental
To support this peculiar condition, the plant structures are modified.
Most of the succulents have, in their tissues, peculiar aggregates of cells which apparently serve to conserve water, reduce transpiration loss and increase rapid absorption by the roots.
They are the living expression of strange and unusual conditions of climate and soil.
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