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Dry season  [ Ecology - Meteorology ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

     
  One of the two seasons in tropical climates, an annually recurring period of one or more months during which no precipitation is expected; the opposite of rainy season.  


The dry season is a designation used for areas experiencing a period of time when conditions are normally dry (less than 3 cm of precipitation) and commonly used when describing the weather in the tropics.
The dry season is marked by months of drought and fire is frequent. Without the yearly drought and widespread fire, it is believed that tropical grassland , savannas and woodlands would eventually change into tropical forests….In climate characterized by a long dry season trees have long tap roots to reach the deep water table, and thick bark for resistance to annual fires. They are deciduous and lose their leaves during the dry season, and may use their trunks for water storage. Thorny, spiny or succulent vegetation is sometimes prominent. Most plants and animals have a period of dormancy (Aestivation) during the month of high temperature of the dry season.

The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which oscillates from the northern to the southern tropics over the course of the year. Near these latitudes, there is one wet season and one dry season annually. On the equator, there are two wet and two dry seasons as the rain belt passes over twice a year, once moving north and once moving south. Between the tropics and the equator, locations may experience a short wet and a long wet season. Local geography may substantially modify these climate patterns, however.
 

Dry time or season  [ Ecology - Meteorology ]
     
  An annually recurring period of one or more months during which no precipitation is expected characteristic of a particular area or region.  
 

 


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Holdfast roots  [ Botany  ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

 
     
  Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.  
     
Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans),  develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994
     

 

 

 

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