I never would've suspected a cactus living in a rainforest. It makes sense in retrospect. You have so much competition in a rainforest, that you have to find niches to survive. And rainforests are fantastic at producing niches for all life.
It's astonishing just how far north cacti can survive. The eastern prickly pear cactus, Opuntia humifusa, makes it all the way up into southern Ontario!
Yes exactly! I have one in my garden here in Vienna Austria and well the lowest it will get here is at most about -18°C if that at all in very cold winters but many others can be grown far north too like Cylindropuntia imbricata or in some cases even Opuntia ficus indica
I pickle cactus in the spring when the prickly pears make new pads. They're good for your guts. The berries they make are the favorite food of our tortoises in texas.
here in Jalisco (central west Mexico), there are large 6 meters tall cactus in the middle of the temperate oak and pine forests that dominate most of the state, there are also different cacti species in the coastal jungles, swamps, and mangroves, on the northernmost savannas and scrubland and even some species live in the harsh mountains and rare cloud forests. I remember one time when one of my dad's friends that were from Spain was visiting him here in Jalisco he could barely believe seeing giant cacti in the middle of a temperate forest. Cacti are amazing overall!
You really need to do a video on the 3 types of photosynthesis. CAM photosynthesis is unique to cacti, and the main reason why these plants can survive these dry conditions.
@@rleoncuevas Fair. I debated on saying CAM is unique to cactus... In the world of plants nothing is absolute. Heck, when I was propagating switchgrass, I had plants within the same species were C3 and C4!
This is one of the many reasons i said he covered too much, but none of it well. Just vague, broad statements that CAN be true of cacti. And that's more a 50/50.
I live in Phoenix, Arizona, which is part of the desert area that they mention in this video. I’m very accustomed to seeing various types of cacti. In fact, the Saguaro cactus bloom is the state flower of Arizona.
When my son was about 11 years old he entered a Jaycee Relay Race. He’d never ran track before and didn’t know everybody wore shorts. He came in jeans, to everyone’s amusement. He ran the last leg for his team - and came away the fastest runner of the day, and made up considerable distance to win. This video made me think of that day. How I wish I had been able to see it, instead of only hear and read about it. I was a single mom and had to work. My son was an amazing athlete. ❤️
Dr. Lucas Majure has helped me personally with my O. polyacantha discovery in Ontario, Canada. His research on the genre has inspired my conservation and rehabiliation work. Thank you so much Dr. Majure for this Ted Talk. Have been waiting years for this. TED-Ed please have Dr Majure on again to do a presentation on cactus identifications. - Ottawa Cacti and Succulent Sanctuary 💚🌵🌿
This explains why Mexican/Mesoamerican cuisine is probably the only one that uses cacti. It even has an important role symbolically as you can obviously tell by the Mexican flag. There’s nothing like eating nopales, corazones, injertos, xoconoxtle, and tunas. Especially with a molcajete of salsa roja asada and tortillas.
Oh, so you write it saguaro! I just transcribed all this video for some English activity and I wrote it as 'sewaro'. In my defense, I didn't know how to write it.
@@thenightmarewizardcat honestly, I’m only guessing on how it was spelled. I remember my grandfather pronouncing it that way and just assumed, that was 27 years ago. Not entirely sure if I spelled it right either
Thank you for not making this vid click bait. I've seen too many vids where they state the REAL reason for something and it's exactly what you'd expect adding no new information.
"Native to the Americas" Rhipsalis baccifera, the only member of the cacti family found outside the Americas (native to the Americas, Africa, and Sri Lanka): *I'm the exception*
@@HienNguyenHMN Rhipsalis baccifera is a member of the Cactaceae/cacti family. So this one IS in fact a cacti, the only cacti found outside the Americas Google can do wonders, comrade...NEVER question the Supreme Leader. "Tell me you don't do research, without telling me you don't do research"
Guess I found an GREAT video for me to watch at midnight! AS ALWAYS THANK TED-ED❤🤣 It would have been better with subtitles but still amazing before bed!
Some of these things such as the waxy layer and the leaves reason to form like spines were already known by me, since my science teacher taught us this in 6th grade.
A small confusion/correction at 00:56 - if the spine's surface area is lowered (which it is) to reduce water loss, how do they 'shade' the plant during day?
@@Shadow952013 yeah, but they are very thin to do that job though, aren't they? As is evident, much of the main plant trunk's skin is exposed directly to outside world even when they're covered in spines.
As a person who uses English as a second language, I really hope that there are subtitles in later TED-Ed videos. It helps foreign viewers focus on the video's content and widen the audience range to children in non-English speaking countries. Its doesn't even have to be in our language, English subtitles is enough.
Trivia: very primitive cacti, such as the species in the genera Pereskia, are forest plants that still have normal leaves along side with the turned-into-spike ones, but they use their spikes to climb up the trees, more or less as vines. Just like as for the spiked-trunk palm trees, the spines originate as a way to get up into the forest canopy. :)
The way he was pronouncing the saguaro cactus was hurting me ears 😵💫 I don’t know if that’s the English way to pronounce saguaro but I’ve always heard it as “sa-wahr-ro” my high school was even named after the cactus (Saguaro High) so it hurts even more 😮💨
