Question

Explain the different types of adaptations in plants with suitable examples.

Answer 1

Hint: A place where an organism makes its home is called its habitat. Any change in the surrounding of an organism brings out changes in its own self for survival.

Complete answer:
An evolutionary process where an organism becomes better suited to the changes in its habitat is called adaptation. It means a feature or trait which helps an animal or plant to survive. It is one of the basic phenomena of biology. It is the result of natural selections acting upon several generations.

Types of adaptation
The different types of adaptations in plants are:
Adaptation in Deserts
A desert is a dry region with water scarcity, so the plants here have small leaves and many spines to help them in saving water. Their leaves are thick and waxy which helps them retain water. Some plants are also leafless and store water in their green stem.
Example: different types of Cactus, Joshua tree, etc.

Adaptation in Tropical Forest
There is a lot of heavy rainfall with a hot climate in a tropical forest, so the plants here have drip tips and waxy surfaces to shed excess water. Plants have prop roots for support in the shallow soils.
Example: Bromeliads, lianas, different rainforest trees, etc.

Adaptation in Temperate Forest
Such forests have harsh winters. These forests have layers of plants from very tall to small plants carpeting the forest floors. Most big trees have thick barks to protect against the cold winters, and have broad leaves to capture more sunlight.
Example: Lichen, moss, ferns, etc.

Adaptation in the grasslands
These have hot summers and cold winters with uncertain rains and many droughts. The plants here have deep roots and thick barks to survive the prairie fires. There are deep roots to absorb water. They have narrow leaves to lose less water.
Example: buffalo grass, needle grass, foxtail, etc.

Adaptation in water
Plants have a waxy coating on their leaves in which chlorophyll is restricted only on the top surface which is green in color, this coating helps them to float. Roots and root hair are absent as no need to absorb water, they have air pockets in leaves to absorb oxygen from water.
Example: water lily, lotus, duckweed, giant Salvinia, etc.

Notes:
 - Plants also adapt according to their food as sunflowers bend towards the direction of the sun and insectivorous plants such as venus flytrap consume insects to fulfill their nitrogen deficiency.
- Epiphytes grow in humid rainforests. They may not have roots as they do not grow in soil. but, they still need water for photosynthesis and this need is fulfilled by absorbing water from the air. However, for collecting rainwater, fog, or dew many epiphytes have evolved modified leaves or other structures.