SINCE Death Valley, as shown by the published records of the Weather Bureau,2 is the hottest and dryest area known in the United States, and probably in the world, and since the observa- tions of the Death Valley Expedition showed that these extreme climatic conditions are reflected in its vegetable life, a description of this flora has an interest even greater than that incited by the average desert vegetation.
NOTES ON CACTI OUT OF DOORS
North Latitude 38°—23’—20”
West Longitude 122°
By F. B. Noyes
In this particular spot of our U. S. A., which lies on a shelf sloping south toward the Vaca Valley in Solano County, California, cacti have been grown out of doors for six years with considerable success. Several drought resistant trees and shrubs were also doing well until the wet winter of 1939-'40.
Then two of the best, Atriplex hymenelytra and Fremontia mexicana, succumbed to the excess moisture.
Accumulation of acidity in spiny and spineless Opuntia joints jluctuated daily due to crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) in Golan Height and coastal plain. The acidity reached higher concentrations in the young joints, especially during early morning hours, before the plants were exposed to sunlight. Changes in acidity were more pronounced in the chlorenchyma than in the water-accumulating tissues.
Applying nutrient-rich agricultural by-products, such as fruit peels and pulp, to degraded land has been proposed as a strategy to overcome a number of barriers to tropical forest recovery. While such linkages between agroindustry and restoration represent win–win scenarios, practical applications remain largely unexplored. In this case study, we tested coffee pulp as an amendment to catalyze forest succession on post-agricultural land in southern Costa Rica.
Millions of hectares of arid and semiarid western states of the United States are covered by saltbush (Atriplex spp.) plants upon which millions of meat animals graze each year. Many saltbushes are reasonably good forage plants wherever they grow (Bidwell and Wooton 1925).