Plant Adaptations – Types and Examples

What are Plant Adaptations?

Most living beings require food, water, oxygen, and minerals to survive and grow on earth. Environment having colder, wetter and dryer challenges them to survive. So, to understand this we need to learn about plant adaptations.

Moreover, these survival blockades make plants and animals to adapt to survival techniques. Adaptations are the quality that appears in the plants or animal species, which turn out to improve their survival chances in a particular environment.

These species starts producing more successful offspring for that environment. The changes can be physical as well as behavioural. From time to time in response to the conditions all living beings adapt themselves to survive. Here we will discuss some plant adaptations and its types in various conditions.

Plant Adaptations

The plant does not have a central nervous system like animals, so they cannot respond to the environment in the same way as animals do. However, plants make behavioural and physical adaptations. In comparison with animals, plants have more permanent adaptations. Plants cannot move, so either they survive in the same place and produce offsprings or they do not.

Some Common Plant Adaptations Strategies

– For the spreading and survival of their seeds plants have made some specific adaptations. The bright colour of the flower is a common example of this. The purpose of this is to draw certain insects and birds that will visit the flower and distribute its pollen grains, thus helping in pollination.

– We can see the adaptation in the roots of the plants. Some plants are firmly rooted to the ground while some plants float on the surface of the water.

– We all have seen the leaves of coconut and palm trees. Places close to the ocean and seas are prone to heavy winds and cyclones. These trees have thin leaves protecting them from getting damaged in wind events.

– In desert conditions, we can see how certain desert plants come out of their dormancy to reproductive activity during favourable conditions of moisture and cool temperature.

Examples of Plant Adaptations

1) Plants of Tundra Region:- Bristlecone Pines of tundra is said to be one of the oldest living organisms of the world. They can survive for more than 4000 years because of their adaptations. They conserve moisture, grow very slowly and begins their growth only when water is available. Also, they produce resin which preserves the wood and retains the moisture.

2) Plants of the Rain Forest:- Rain forests receive 100 to 120 inches of water every year. Here, protecting themselves from water is the chief adaptation. Some plant has drip tips and long leaves to drip water to forest floors.

Furthermore, other plants have an oily, waterproof layer to protect them from excess water. Plants of rain forest grow in a very thick layer. This result in lower layers getting no sunlight. To absorb sunlight plants have large and broad leaves.

Also, some plants are phototrophic. Their leaves turn with the movement of the sun. Some Orchids and bromeliads grow on taller trees to absorb sunlight.

The Indian Bamboo or the Calcutta Cane has made some physical adaptation. They grow tall and fast to absorb more rainfall and sunlight. We can find them in Southeast Asian rainforest which receives heavy rainfall throughout the year.

3) Plants of the Deserts:- Here the lack of water makes the survival of Plants very challenging. The leaves and flowers of plants droop down to avoid loss of water by transpiration. Some flowers have a very fast reproductive cycle to take advantage of quick rainfall. Leaves turn into spikes to avoid water loss.

Solved Question for You

Ques- What is the difference between adaptation and evolution?

Ans – When an adaptation of s species accumulate over a time it results in evolution. Moreover, the adaptation of the organism slowly gets into the DNA which is no longer compatible with the ancestors of the same organism. Hence, this results in the evolution of the organism.