Own Creation Cake Designs

1. CACTUS AND SUCCULENTS CAKE

2. CACTUS
• CACTUS (Converted Atmospheric Cherenkov
Telescope Using Solar-2) was a ground-based,Air
CherenkovTelescope (ACT) located outside
Daggett,California, near Barstow. It was originally
a solar power plant called SolarTwo, but was
converted to an observatory starting in 2001.The
first astronomical observations started in the fall of
2004. However, the facility had its last observing
runs in November 2005 as funds for observational
operations from the National Science Foundation
were no longer available.[1]The facility was
operated by the University of California, Davis but
owned by Southern California Edison.[2] It was
demolished in 2009.[3]

3. SUCCULENT PLANT
• In botany, succulent plants, also known as succulents, are plants that have some parts that
are more than normally thickened and fleshy, usually to retain water in arid climates or soil
conditions.The word "succulent" comes from the Latin word sucus, meaning juice, or
sap.[1] Succulent plants may store water in various structures, such as leaves and stems.
Some definitions also include roots, thus geophytes that survive unfavorable periods by
dying back to underground storage organs may be regarded as succulents. In horticultural
use, the term "succulent" is sometimes used in a way which excludes plants that botanists
would regard as succulents, such as cacti. Succulents are often grown as ornamental plants
because of their striking and unusual appearance.
• Many plant families have multiple succulents found within them (over 25 plant families).[2]
In some families, such as Aizoaceae,Cactaceae, and Crassulaceae, most species are
succulents.The habitats of these water preserving plants are often in areas with high
temperatures and low rainfall. Succulents have the ability to thrive on limited water
sources, such as mist and dew, which makes them equipped to survive in an ecosystem
which contains scarce water sources.

4. DEFINITION
• A general definition of succulents is that they are drought resistant plants in which the leaves, stem or roots have become more than
usually fleshy by the development of water-storing tissue.[3]Other sources exclude roots as in the definition "a plant with thick,
fleshy and swollen stems and/or leaves, adapted to dry environments."[4]This difference affects the relationship between succulents
and "geophytes" – plants that survive unfavorable seasons as a resting bud on an underground organ.[5]These underground organs,
such as bulbs, corms and tubers, are often fleshy with water-storing tissues.Thus if roots are included in the definition, many
geophytes would be classed as succulents. Plants adapted to living in dry environments such as succulents are termed xerophytes.
However, not all xerophytes are succulents, since there are other ways of adapting to a shortage of water, e.g., by developing small
leaves which may roll up or having leathery rather than succulent leaves.[6] Nor are all succulents xerophytes, since plants like
Crassula helmsii are both succulent and aquatic.[7]
• Those who grow succulents as a hobby use the term in a different way to botanists. In horticultural use, the term succulent regularly
excludes cacti. For example, Jacobsen's three volume Handbook of Succulent Plants does not cover cacti,[8] and "cacti and
succulents" is the title or part of the title of many books covering the cultivation of these plants.[9][10][11] However, in botanical
terminology, cacti are succulents.[3] Horticulturists may also exclude other groups of plants, e.g., bromeliads.[12]A practical, but
unscientific, horticultural definition is "a succulent plant is any desert plant that a succulent plant collector wishes to grow."[13] Such
plants less often include geophytes (in which the swollen storage organ is wholly underground) but do include plants with a
caudex,[14] which is a swollen above-ground organ at soil level, formed from a stem, a root or both.[5]
• A further difficulty is that plants are not either succulent or non-succulent. In many genera and families there is a continuous
gradation from plants with thin leaves and normal stems to those with very clearly thickened and fleshy leaves or stems, so that
deciding what is a succulent is often arbitrary. Different sources may classify the same species differently.[15]

5. APPEARANCE
• The storage of water often gives succulent plants a more swollen or fleshy appearance than other plants, a characteristic known as succulence. In addition to succulence, succulent
plants variously have other water-saving features. These may include:
• Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) to minimize water loss
• absent, reduced, or cylindrical-to-spherical leaves
• reduction in the number of stomata
• stems as the main site of photosynthesis, rather than leaves
• compact, reduced, cushion-like, columnar, or spherical growth form
• ribs enabling rapid increases in plant volume and decreasing surface area exposed to the sun
• waxy, hairy, or spiny outer surface to create a humid micro-habitat around the plant, which reduces air movement near the surface of the plant, and thereby reduces water loss and
creates shade
• roots very near the surface of the soil, so they are able to take up moisture from very small showers or even from heavy dew
• ability to remain plump and full of water even with high internal temperatures (e.g., 52 °C or 126 °F)[16]
• very impervious outer cuticle (skin)[16]
• mucilaginous substances, which retain water abundantly[16

6. HABITAT
• Other thanAntarctica, succulents can be found within each continent.While it is often
thought that most succulents come from dry areas such as steppes, semi-desert, and
desert, the world's driest areas do not make for proper succulent habitats.Australia, the
world's driest content, host very few native succulents due to the frequent and prolonged
droughts. Even in Africa, the content with the most native succulents, does not host many
of the plants in its most dry regions.[17] However, while succulents are unable to grow in
these harshest of conditions, they are able to grow in conditions that are uninhabitable by
other plants. In fact, many succulents are able to thrive in dry conditions, and some are
able to last up to two years without water depending on their surroundings and
adaptations.[18] Succulents may also occasionally occur as epiphytes, growing on other
plants with limited or no contact with the ground, and are dependent on their ability to
store water and gain nutrients by other means; this niche is seen inTillandsia. Succulents
also occur as inhabitants of sea coasts and dry lakes, which are exposed to high levels of
dissolved minerals that are deadly to many other plant species. Potted succulents are able
to grow in most indoor environments with minimal care.[19]

7. REFERENCES:
• WIKIPEDIA.COM