CAM photosynthesis is a clever adaptation some plants have where they turn light into sugar during the day, and only breathe in CO2 at night. This lets the plant close up its leaves so they don’t lose water during the heat of the day.

CAM plants use sunlight to turn malic acid into sugar, and every night they breathe in plenty of carbon dioxide, storing it as a fresh supply of malic acid. If you have keen senses, you may be able to taste the difference between a CAM plant harvested during the day and one harvested at night because of this variation in sugar and acid content.

Having evolved several times independantly, you see CAM in lots of different kinds of plants: air plants and bromeliads, which have poorly developed root systems; cacti and other succulents, which grow in hot dry environments; you even see it in some aquatic plants. For these, CAM serves not to conserve water, but carbon dioxide - which is of course hard to come by when you don’t have any air.

The “crassulacean” part of the name “crassulacean acid metabolism” is there because this phenomenon was first discovered in crassulas. Jade plants are an example of this genus.

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  • soyaEnjoyer [they/them, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    8·
    3 days ago

    I finally started the process of changing my name legally after 8 years and I already regret it

    My first name was given to me. It was my dad’s middle name and I never liked it. I’m not a man and I’m nothing to do with him.

    My second was a fem name which I chose myself. I loved it at the time, but it became evident that I wasn’t a woman either. I had the name for 3 years. I kind of miss it, but it’s not me.

    My third was a unisex name based on my original name. I couldn’t really explain why I chose it, like it’s objectively bad and there’s at least one absolute demon of a “person” with that name. There was a much better unisex name that I really liked but I felt like I didn’t deserve because I was extremely fucking depressed. But idk, i settled on the shit one and became accustomed to it.

    The fash shit continues to get worse and I’m finally (7 year withing list) getting somewhere with the gender clinic so i decided to get my deed polls done and reapply for my driving licence while I still can. I hadn’t really given my name much thought in a few years, so I just autopiloted everything with the shit name, since that’s the one I’ve had for the last 5 years.

    Within 2 weeks, I’ve been reminded multiple times of the demon with whom I share a name. My fucking dad decides to get in touch. The EHRC shit dropped, which is truly fucking horrible. Then I’ve interacted with two people who have the name that I actually wanted and it’s all just made me spiral.

    So fuck it. I’m having the good name. When my driving licence comes back, I’ll have to immediately reapply with another deed poll for shit -> good name. Then everywhere else will need a different deed poll for dead -> good name. It’ll be a bit annoying, but it’ll be worth it because I am actually allowed to be happy and have nice things.