What is the origin of cacti and other succulents?

Have you ever wondered what the origin of cacti and other succulents is? Surely yes, right? And it is that these types of plants are very different from those that inhabit the forests and fields of planet Earth. Although, everything must be said: the conditions in which they have had to live are also unique.

The evolutionary paths have been, without a doubt, very interesting. So Do not miss this article so you can feel that much more in awe when you see your collection.

What is the origin of cacti?

Cacti are succulent plants that have managed to conquer the hearts and lives of more than one person. They are so popular that it is hard to believe that many species have such a low price, something that only fuels our curiosity and desire to have more specimens.

When we want to investigate its origin we have to go back between 80 and 60 million years, in the Cretaceous period. At that time, they were conventional plants, with simple leaves distributed in a helical way, with a stem that had wood (secondary xylem), pollen and seeds that lived in what is now South America, but that once formed part of Pangea.

Pangea was a supercontinent in the process of being divided by the movement of tectonic plates (the »puzzle pieces» that make up planet Earth), that enjoyed a warm climate. As earthquakes and volcanic eruptions divided it, each of the continents that we know today headed towards their current locations.

This caused an important change, both in fauna and flora. In the case of those primitive cacti, seeing themselves in an area where it rained less and less and the sun's rays fell straighter, his body evolved to adapt. Some began to grow globose, staying close to ground level, others instead grew in height.

But the most dramatic change was the replacement of leaves by thorns, which are actually leaf spines (hence, for example, when inadvertently we pluck one, after a while another sprouts again). They could no longer photosynthesize through them, but there was no problem: the stem started to produce chlorophyll, and as a consequence, it turned green.

So far, it is known that there are more than 200 genera of cacti with about 2500 species. Of course, they have not done badly at all.

What is the origin of succulent plants?

Succulents, or non-cacti succulents, are plants that appeared after cacti, when the "piece" that is today the African continent was locating itself, always little by little and over the course of millions of years, in its current situation. Now, unfortunately, it is not known exactly when the crass began their evolution.

What I can tell you for sure is that, many species of succulents, belonging to the botanical family Aizoaceae mainly (Lithops or Argyroderma), you will find them south of the Sahara desert, in the Horn of Africa, such as Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho or South Africa. Now, you have to know that there are other plants, such as Sempervivum or Aeonium, that are not native to this place, but from the Canary Islands, the Alps, the Carpathians, the Balkans or Turkey, among others.

Did you find this topic interesting? If you still have questions, don't leave them unanswered. 