10 Yellow-Flowering Plants In The Desert Of Africa
A desert is any region that receives under 10 inches of
rainfall annually, which means nearly a fifth of the world's land is classified
as desert. Its contribution in terms of flora and fauna worldwide is relatively
low as well, with little diversity among these glorified and fortunate few
species of organisms inhabiting these harsh regions.
When one thinks of deserts, the first thing that likely pops
into one's mind is scorchy, high ambient temperatures and sun-baked soils.
Guess what? Regions that have extremely low temperatures, icebergs, and
ice-coated terrains with a significantly low population of living organisms are
considered deserts.
The different types of deserts according to National
Geographic are subtropical, coastal, rain shadow, interior, and polar. These
classifications are due to causes of dryness. Unexhausted, these are some of
the notable and spectacular deserts that can be found in different parts of the
world. The Namib and Sahara in Africa, Atacama in South America, and Gobi in
China and the Mongolian People's Republic. The rest are Mojave in Nevada and
California, Sonoran in the USA and Mexico, Antarctic in Antarctica, and so on.
Enveloping North Africa, stretching across ten countries
including Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger,
Tunisia, and the Sudan is the magnificent Sahara Desert. The audaciously
searing Sahara Desert covers 3.6 million square miles, or an area larger than
the United States.
It is decorated with dunes and sand seas, stone plateaus,
gravel planes, salt flats, and both dry valleys and dry lakes.
With temperatures ranging from a minimum of 38 degrees
Celsius or 100 degrees Fahrenheit to a maximum of about 46 degrees Celsius or
114 degrees Fahrenheit, it is much wonder, then, that anything survives in
these extremes. Animals in the desert possess special features or unique
behavioral patterns that enable them to withstand or adapt to intolerable
conditions. Mostly, the animals that are likely to be found include mosquitoes,
deathstalkers/scorpions, spiders, ants, butterflies, moths, and cockroaches as
well as vipers and sand Cobra.
The subject of my discussion is the impressive and tenacious
flora of the desert. Plants as we know do not have the mobility advantages
presented to animals to enable them to take shelter and avoid the extreme
conditions of the desert. So what is their triumph card? Well, if you cannot
move and water is a challenge then you should be able to endure minimal water
supply and tolerate hypertonic conditions.
They must develop heat-reflecting waxy surfaces, reduced
leaf sizes, fleshy but heavily cutaneous stems, and elongated roots to draw
water from amazingly long depths. Despite the water challenges of plants like
cactus, baobab, quiver trees and so on they can produce flowers of different
colors and fruits also. Here, I focus on ten of the plants that produce yellow
flowers in the African desert region.
1. Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia)
The symbolic desert cactus has a green, fleshy stem that is covered by sharply pointed spines. Hence, the alias prickly pear. The thick, fleshy stem stores a lot of moisture, which allows the plant to survive the desert ecosystem. The thick waxy cuticle covering the stem reflects heat from the sun, thereby preventing overheating of the plant to conserve water. The prickly pear cactus also flowers in deserts when conditions are right. Uniquely, the leaves of Opuntia opuntia and other members of the family are highly reduced to form prickly structures or spines on the surface of the stem to further reduce the loss of water. The characteristically yellow, purple, and red showy flowers illuminate the dry and barren landscapes. These large desert cacti can grow to between 16 and 23 ft. (5 – 7 m).
2. Yellow Bells (Tecoma stans)
A low less-woody perennial plant or bush shaped like a trumpet that can highly tolerate drought and heat. It is not surprising that has adapted adequately to the desert. Nick-named yellow bells due to their production of yellow flowers, a shade of gold, in the shape of a tapering receptacle or a funnel. Among other warm climates in the world, yellow bells are endemic to some arid regions of Africa such as South Africa and eastern Africa like Kenya.
3. Halfmens
The swollen base of this plant makes it resemble a bottle.
It is a drought-resistant plant located in most arid regions. It is synonymous
with a lot of names such as elephant trunk, club-foot, half-man, or half-man.
Scientifically christened Pachypodium namaquanum (respectively meaning thick
foot =Greek and arid region = South African) the dry outer, spiny, or prickly
exterior protects a very succulent and fleshy interior. Thereby able to
withstand the harsh conditions of the desert. The name halfmens is derived from
the Afrikaans word meaning semi-human which came from the fact that from a
distance the plants look like people walking up a slope. The flowers are red on
the inside and yellow-green on the outside.
4. Quiver
Tree
What is interesting about this tree is that is an enormous
aloe. Characteristic of aloes, they can store large volumes of water preserving
the plant in the desert. It has dry brown scales with very sharp edges that
cover a cellulose-rich fibrous tissue of the trunk offering the ability of the
plant to conserve water. The high moisture content of the quiver tree,
Aloidendron dichotomum cools the quiver plant improving its adaptability to the
very high ambient temperature of the desert environment. The wandering hunters
of Southern Africa, Kalari Bushmen, make arrows from the branches and bark of
this bright yellow flowering plant hence its name. When temperatures are
extremely high, the branches do not receive water and appear like severed
limbs.
5. Desert
African Hyacinth
Methusalehs Breakfast, as it is otherwise known, is a
bulb-shaped perennial parasitic shrub typically associated with dry regions. It
is highly dependent on other plants since it is non-chlorophyllous. So how does
it get its nutrition and produce those beautiful bright yellow flowers? Well,
it sinks its long tiny root deep into the underground tuber of the host and
saps its live-sustaining nutrient made of water and dissolved food substances.
The plant, bearing the attractive cluster funnel-shaped bright yellow flowers,
can be found in large areas of South Africa, usually areas with minimal
rainfall like the central and northern parts of the Northern Cape, North West,
and Limpopo Provinces. I am certain at this point you are wondering about the
alias Methuselah breakfast. It is
because people in countries like China and Japan that consume the plant live
relatively long. There is the belief that it contains antioxidant,
neuroprotective, and anti-aging properties. It could be a contributing factor
to the high life expectancy in those two countries as observed by Macrotrends.
6. Othona
cheirifolia
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Othonna is endemic to the desert regions of Algeria and Tunisia. It is a dicot plant which has daisy-yellow flowers. Having low water requirements, it thrives amazingly in the hot and humid summers and cold conditions as well. Othona, also referred to as barbary ragwort is physically a shrub-like plant with grey or green succulent spatulate leaves. It can spread forming a tight mat.
7. Desert
date or Egyptian balsam
The scientific name of the plant is Balanites aegytiaca. It
occupies some parts of the Savannah areas of Africa and the desert regions of
Egypt. B. aegytiaca is a dicot plant
bearing deep-green compound leaves that grow out of the base of the spines of
the branches that are spirally arranged around the stem of the tree. Also
referred to as soapberry tree, it is tolerant of sand and dense clay soils. It
has a few stalk-less or short-stalked yellow-green small flowers which are
ovoid. They are bisexual.
8. Kalanchoe
thyrsiflora
Bird's brandy as is popularly called bear rose-shaped vase-like flowers with yellow interior petals and slightly white powdery exterior, hence the other nickname white lady. It can survive rather harsh conditions blooming all the way. It has a cluster of leaves attached to the base of the stem/plant. The fleshy leaves shaped like a rabbit-ears become continuously smaller above the base of the plant. Such that, only the collections of white yellow flowers completely occupy the apex of the plant. Though it can thrive in bushveld and grassland regions, it can adapt to arid deserts and rocky bare surfaces. It inhabits, the Provinces of Limpopo, North West, KwaZulu-Natal, and elsewhere.
9. Citrullus
colocynthis
C. colocynthis has an elongated, juicy, and persistent tap
root enabling it to reach terrains having long water tables. Leading to a high
survival rate even in the xeric, sandy, and arid soils of the Sahara and in
Egypt. Their creeping stems grow on the surfaces of the dunes like watermelon
and may climb short plants like herbs. Commonly referred to as the vine of
Sodom or desert vine plant has yellow and solitary monoecious flowers. Each
flower, born on the same plant, either has a male organ or a female organ.
10. Tamarinsk
The tamarinsk bears striking yellow flowers that are actually from another plant, yellow cistanche closely attached to it. Indeed, this yellow cistanche is a plant parasite cashing in on the water supply of the tamarinsk. The yellow flowers appear miraculously from the soil. Tamarinsk, the host plant, possesses about two-score meters of enormously long root system and can suck water from great depth below the surface of the soil.
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