The plobam has split from its ancestor. Only the top of the plant photosynthesizes. Every year, a new layer of leaves begins to grow at the top, and the bottom photosynthetic layer becomes hard and folds flat against the plant. Over time, it grows larger and larger, but an average plant only grows 0.5m because it does not photosynthesize enough to grow any bigger. A lot of the energy generated from sunlight goes into producing ATP (energy) which it uses at night. Every night when the temperature drops, the top layers close up to prevent freezing, as the plant collects rainwater in this top layer during the day. In the summer, brightly colored berries are produced and eaten by small capoo and other herbivores.
Living Relatives (click to show/hide)
These are randomly selected, and organized from lowest to highest shared taxon. (This may correspond to similarity more than actual relation)