Botany and uses of cacti

Abstract

In common parlance, succulents are all fleshy plants with swollen stems and leaves. Instead, it would be more correct to use the term succulent, as their characteristic feature is that they have succulent tissue inside them, i.e. a soft, spongy fleshiness saturated with water that produces a typical swelling in the plant. Usually, the swelling of the plant is in the aerial parts, i.e. the stem and leaves. There are, however, some cases of succulence at the roots and intermediate variants with succulence distributed in the leaves, stem and roots simultaneously. These plants represent a world apart in terms of their characteristics, resistance, vegetative behaviour, flowering and many other features. In this review, we would like to describe some aspects of these plants that make them as strange as they are extraordinary.