This remarkable “resurrection” plant can dry out almost completely, lie dormant for decades, only to return to life within hours after the first drop of water.
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Desiccation, or the loss of all moisture, means death for most organisms on earth. Cells collapse; membranes rupture; DNA fragments; the metabolism grinds to a halt. However, scattered across some of the Earth’s harshest landscapes, there is an elite group of species that defy this rule completely. They’re known colloquially as “resurrection plants”: organisms that are capable of drying out almost completely, and then springing back to life as soon as water returns.
Perhaps the most extreme member of this group is Selaginella lepidophylla, commonly known as the “rose of Jericho” or “the dinosaur of houseplants.” It’s native to the Chihuahuan Desert in northern Mexico and southwestern United States, it can survive nearly total desiccation (down to about 5% internal moisture) and remain dormant.
Most astonishingly, it can remain in this dormant state for nearly a decade. Some field accounts estimate that individuals can remain viable for six to seven years without a drop of water. Here’s how.
The Resurrection Plant Dries Without Dying
Most plants can only tolerate mild dehydration. Without a sufficient amount of water, their tissues wilt and the process of photosynthesis slows. In turn, they quickly begin accumulating metabolic damage. However, Selaginella lepidophylla operates completely differently — as it dries out on purpose.
As it begins to lose water content, the rose of Jericho’s forms itself into a tight ball, using its spiral arrangement of stems and leaves. This, as a result, significantly minimizes its total surface area, while simultaneously protecting its inner tissues. Fascinatingly, once it reaches this curled up state, the plant becomes almost weightless. This means that it’s easily blown across desert plains, in the same way a tumbleweed would.
Remarkably, when rain eventually arrives — be it days, weeks, months or even years later — it unfurls itself and begins to turn green once more. In just a matter of hours after being rewatered, it resumes its growth as if nothing happened.
As research from Annual Review of Physiology explains, this process is possible due to the plant entering a state that’s known as “anhydrobiosis.” This refers to a reversible suspended animation, similar to what tardigrades and brine shrimp use to survive extreme environments. But plants, which cannot escape heat or drought, rely even more heavily on this strategy.
How The Resurrection Plant’s Cells Survive Near-Complete Desiccation
The resurrection plant’s resilience without water is a direct product of its biochemistry. As 2013 research from Molecular Plant explains, this is due to the various tactics it uses to stabilize its cells during water loss:
Sugar-based protection.While losing water, the rose of Jericho accumulates enormous quantities of trehalose — a sugar known to stabilize proteins and membranes. This sugar serves as a molecular scaffold that prevents cell structures from collapsing as water continues to disappear. The study shows that Selaginella lepidophylla’s trehalose concentrations increase significantly during desiccation, which assists in the formation of an almost “glassy” state inside its cells.Antioxidant and protective proteins. When cells dehydrate, reactive oxygen species (ROS) surge. This process often results in damaged DNA and proteins. However, the resurrection plant combats this with a suite of antioxidants and late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins: small but flexible molecules that protect other proteins from unfolding. The Molecular Plant study shows that desiccation triggers a dramatic upregulation of LEA proteins (as well as other stress-response genes) in Selaginella lepidophylla.Flexible cell walls. Most plant cells crack when they’re too dried out. But Selaginella lepidophylla’s cell walls contain unusual pectin configurations, which specifically enables them to fold their stems repeatedly without breaking. Then, when water returns, the walls unfold smoothly, while also preserving its cellular shape.
The resurrection plant’s revival is rapid, almost dramatically so. Within minutes of receiving water again, its stems uncurl. Within hours, chloroplasts that were previously clumped and dormant start to spread out. Soon, it’s able to completely reactivate photosynthesis and begin rebuilding its metabolic pathways.
Why The Resurrection Plant’s Survival Strategy Matters For Humans
Extreme desiccation tolerance has real implications for agriculture, climate resilience and biotechnology. These include:
Engineering drought-resistant crops. Understanding how resurrection plants stabilize their membranes, protect their proteins and regulate their stress genes may help scientists develop crops that are able to survive longer without water. Preservation of biological materials. Trehalose-based vitrification is already being explored for stabilizing vaccines, preserving biological samples and improving enzyme shelf-life.Space biology and extraterrestrial survival. If we ever begin growing plants somewhere other than Earth, such as the Moon or Mars, we’ll need species that are capable of tolerating extreme stress. Resurrection plants offer us a natural blueprint for this.
The resurrection plant’s life strategy is a reminder that survival doesn’t always reward speed or size. Sometimes it rewards stillness. This species endures long after everything around it has died, while waiting patiently for the rare desert rain. And when that moment comes — even if nearly a decade has passed — it unfurls, greens and starts life over. It may not be immortal, but it is still arguably one of the most resilient forms of life on Earth.
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