How some plants survive drying out completely, then bounce back
Schuster J, VanBuren R
Climate Adaptation
The mosses and lichens crusting your garden path or a shady rock wall aren't dead when they turn brown and crispy in a dry spell; they're built to rehydrate and green up again within hours of the next rain.
Most plants die if they lose too much water, but a scattered few, mostly mosses, lichens, and some resurrection ferns, can dry out almost completely and then come back to life when rain returns. Researchers found this trick likely evolved from older, more general stress-survival systems that got repurposed for extreme drying rather than plants inventing something brand new. Because drying out is also dangerous for photosynthesis (too much light with no water to use it safely can fry a cell), these plants also carry special protections that kick in during both the drying and the recovery phase.
Key Findings
Desiccation tolerance is rare in vegetative tissue of vascular plants but scattered widely across the plant kingdom, suggesting it played a role in early land colonization by plants.
Comparative and multi-omics studies over the past decade show desiccation tolerance largely evolved through repurposing of ancient, conserved stress-resilience pathways rather than novel mechanisms.
Photosynthetic desiccation-tolerant species face added photooxidative stress during drying and rehydration, requiring dedicated protective mechanisms for the photosynthetic machinery.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists reviewed how certain plants and mosses survive losing almost all their internal water, a superpower called desiccation tolerance, and found it evolved by repurposing ancient stress-survival tricks rather than inventing new ones.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Desiccation tolerance mechanisms in the green lineage and beyond.
Water is essential for life on Earth, yet some plants can survive the near-complete loss of cellular water, a trait known as desiccation tolerance. Although rare in vegetative tissues of vascular p...
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