Question

7. There are several succulent plants that exist in various regions of the world. What characteristics do they have in common? How are these advantageous in dry climates? Is this an example of convergent evolution? Why/why not?

Answer 1

The defining characteristic of succulents is water storage. Succulents have stems, leaves or roots that collect water when it's available and save it for the dry time of year. This special ability allows these hardy plants to survive on their internal stores of water for extended droughts. Within succulents there is a wide variety of form and color, but they all feature this useful ability to store water.

Thick succulent stems, adapted to conserve water, evolved independently in several lineages of desert flowering plants.

Both the familiar Latin American cacti and the African euphorbias lost their leaves and transferred photosynthesis to their enlarged stems, whose specialized anatomy provides water storage and support.

Although their stems are similar, their flowers (and fruits) are very different from one another.

Cacti (Cactaceae) belong within a major branch of flowering plants that includes carnations and ice-plants, while the euphorbs (Euphorbiaceae) are members of a very distantly related branch that includes violets and willows.

So it might showing convergence.