The cactus

📖 In short

The cactus is an amazing plant that lives in hot, dry deserts where it hardly ever rains. Its thick green stem stores water, and it has sharp spines instead of leaves. Cacti come from the Americas, and there are about two thousand kinds.

🤩 Did you know?

Big cacti grow only 7.5 to 10 centimeters a year.
A cactus lives between 50 and 200 years.
The roots of a big cactus can spread 15 meters.
Some birds make their nests in holes in the saguaro cactus.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 A water tank

When rain falls, a cactus's many roots near the surface soak up the water quickly and store it in the thick stem, which swells. Then it lives on this water for many months.

🔍 Why spines?

A cactus's spines are its leaves! They turned into spines so water doesn't evaporate from them, and to protect it from thirsty animals that want to eat it.

💡 The saguaro cactus

One of the most famous cacti is the giant saguaro of the American desert, which looks like a man raising his arms; it can be more than 12 meters tall and live hundreds of years.