Deserts appear very fascinating during our short visits. However, the lives of plants and animals are very dif?cult under the harsh climatic conditions of high tempe- ture and scant water supply in deserts, sometimes associated with high concent- tions of salt. The editor of this book was born and brought up in the Great Indian Desert, and has spent much of his life studying the growth and metabolism of desert plants. It is very charming on a cool summer evening to sit at the top of a sand dune listening only to blowing air and nothing else. It has been my dream to prepare a volume on desert plants encompassing various aspects of desert plant biology. In this book, I have tried to present functional and useful aspects of the vegetation resources of deserts along with scienti?c input aimed at understanding and impr- ing the utility of these plants. The scant vegetation of deserts supports animal life and provides many useful medicines, timber and fuel wood for humans. Therefore, there are chapters devoted to medicinal plants (Chap. 1), halophytes (Chaps. 13, 14), and fruit plants (Chaps. 17, 20). Desert plants have a unique reproductive biology (Chaps. 9–11), well-adapted eco-physiological and anatomical charact- istics (Chap. 7), and specialised metabolism and survival abilities. These plants are dif?cult to propagate and pose many problems to researchers developing biote- nological approaches for their amelioration (Chaps. 18–20).
Author(s): Jaya Arora, Shaily Goyal, Kishan Gopal Ramawat (auth.), K.G. Ramawat (eds.)
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Year: 2010
Language: English
Pages: 503
Tags: Plant Physiology; Plant Breeding/Biotechnology; Plant Anatomy/Development; Agriculture; Plant Ecology; Nature Conservation
Front Matter....Pages i-xxi
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Biodiversity, Biology and Conservation of Medicinal Plants of the Thar Desert....Pages 3-36
Potentiality of Hydrocarbon Yielding Plants for Future Energy and Chemicals....Pages 37-56
Biology and Biotechnological Advances in Jatropha curcas – a Biodiesel Plant....Pages 57-71
Biology of Annual Plants in Arid and Semi-Arid Desert Regions of China....Pages 73-89
Soil Biology in Traditional Agroforestry Systems of the Indian Desert....Pages 91-120
Aspects of Mycorrhizae in Desert Plants....Pages 121-134
Anatomical Variations in the Woody Plants of Arid Areas....Pages 135-155
Diversity and Conservation in the Cactus Family....Pages 157-173
Front Matter....Pages 176-176
Reproductive Biology of Some Gum-Producing Indian Desert Plants....Pages 177-195
Reproductive Biology of Cactaceae....Pages 197-230
Parthenocarpy and Seed Production in Burseraceae....Pages 231-239
Front Matter....Pages 242-242
Photosynthesis of C 4 Desert Plants....Pages 243-259
Polyamines and Plant Adaptation to Saline Environments....Pages 261-298
Ecology of Inland Saline Plants....Pages 299-320
Ecophysiology of Prosopis Species From the Arid Lands of Argentina: What Do We Know About Adaptation to Stressful Environments?....Pages 321-340
Plant Growth Inhibitors From Mesquite ( Prosopis juliflora )....Pages 341-352
Front Matter....Pages 354-354
Genetic Variation in the Tunisian Date Palm ( Phoenix dactylifera L.)....Pages 355-370
Biology and Multiplication of Prosopis species Grown in the Thar Desert....Pages 371-406
Biotechnology Advances in Jojoba ( Simmondsia chinensis )....Pages 407-421
Date Palm Cultivation in the Changing Scenario of Indian Arid Zones: Challenges and Prospects....Pages 423-459
Front Matter....Pages 354-354
Runoff-Rainwater for Sustainable Desert Farming....Pages 461-477
Biotechnological Approaches to Aphrodisiac Plants of Rajasthan, India....Pages 479-495
Back Matter....Pages 497-503
