A bit more than 2 months ago, I showed some very blackened plant stems and most people had trouble believing that these are even alive. Last weekend, we had a substantial amount of rainfall and I took this picture on Thursday. Although the dried leaf tips clearly were burned last winter, they have continued growing as if nothing ever happened. Monkey's Tail or Xerophyta retinervis is one of the so called 'resurrection plants' because it can become completely dried out and burned but it will resume growing 48-72 hours after rain. The leaves break down all of their chlorophyll when they dry out, then rapidly synthesize new photosynthetic pigments when water is available again, making them look green again. This fascinating ability in Xerophyta has been researched because of scientific interest in improving the drought tolerance of crop plants. Although genetic modification of plants is the subject of hot debate, many of the desired modification has been around looking at ways to 'tweak' plants so that crops can still be harvested in drought-stricken areas like ours, where farmers plant crops but they are frequently ruined if there are interruptions in the rainfall. That is: it rains, crops sprout and grow and then it stops raining for a few weeks, sinking the farmers hopes and finances for the season.
It will be a little while before they flower although I saw that some have already flowered, even before the rain came. I'll be on the lookout for flowering now. This is a plant that can be difficult to grow and the only way to do it is from seed.