Here's What The World Would Look Like Without Rain

As any gardener will tell you, most plants will rapidly wither and dry out without water. The reason, per the Royal Horticultural Society, is that plants need to gather enough water through their roots to sustain their foliage. But some plants are already drought-tolerant, and they'd likely last a lot longer after the rain stopped falling. 

The most famous plants to make their homes in arid environments are cacti and, as Live Science explains, they have a variety of survival tricks hidden up their green sleeves. Among other things, cacti only open up their pores at night, when they won't lose too much moisture under the hot sunlight. Their waxy skin helps them retain water, which is stored plentifully in a cactus' thick, fleshy trunk. As the ground dries out, cacti have one final trick. Their roots start to die off, so the plant can conserve as much water as possible without the risk of losing any to the desiccated ground.

Elsewhere in the world, other plants have evolved similar strategies, and one famous example is the baobab tree. Several species of baobab grow across Africa, with some of the most iconic found in Madagascar. As South Africa's Baobab Foundation explains, these trees use similar tricks to cacti, with up to 75% of their enormous trunks used to store water, which they take care not to use unless necessary. In the end though, even the most resilient of plants need water, which means they too depend on rain.

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