What does a spindle tree do?

On the grassland of South America, there is a spindle tree, which looks like a big radish, but it is many times larger than radish. This kind of tree can be as high as 30 meters, and a building with four or five floors is only half as high as it. Its trunk is thin at both ends and thick in the middle, and the thickest part is 5 meters in diameter. The tunnel leading to the train can barely hold its fallen body. There are several leafy branches on the top of the spindle tree. Seen from a distance, this kind of tree looks like a vase with branches, so it is also called a bottle tree. This kind of tree tapers at both ends, expands in the middle, and the diameter at the thickest part can reach 5 meters. Seen from a distance, it sticks to the ground like a huge spindle. People call it a spindle tree.

In the rainy season, this tree grows sparse branches and heart-shaped leaves on the top of the tall tree, like a big radish. As soon as the rainy season is over and the dry season comes, the green leaves wither one after another, but the red flowers bloom one after another. At this time, Haloxylon ammodendron has become a huge vase with red flowers, so people also call it bottle tree.

The bottle tree grows into such a strange shape because of its living environment. The Amazon river basin in northern Brazil is hot and rainy, belonging to the tropical rain forest area; The south and east have long dry seasons, dry climate and very dry soil, which are savanna belts. Located between the rainforest and the savanna, there are both rainy and dry seasons in a year, but the rainy season is short. Bottle tree lives in this middle zone. Its ecology has adapted to this special environment. Falling leaves in dry season or growing rare new leaves in rainy season are all aimed at reducing evaporation and loss of water in the body.

The root system of bottle tree is particularly developed. After the rainy season comes, it absorbs as much water as possible and stores it for later use. Generally, a big tree can store up to 2 tons of water, just like a green water tower. Therefore, it will not dry up and die in the long dry season. In dry season, people often cut down Haloxylon ammodendron as drinking water source. If the average person drinks 6 kilograms of water every day, cutting down a Haloxylon ammodendron tree can almost supply a family of four with drinking capacity for half a year. There is no woody plant in the world that can store water better than Haloxylon ammodendron!

Bottle trees, like tourist bananas, can provide water for travelers in the desert. As long as people dig a small hole in the tree, fresh thirst-quenching "drinks" can flow out continuously to solve the urgent need for water in the vast sand sea.