Description
Blossfeldia liliputana is one of only 3 flowering plants that I know of that has the ability to almost completely dry out and dessicate but spring back to life after a rain. This effectively makes it a "resurrection plant", similar to some mosses & lichens. This trait is known is Poikilohydry : the inability to retain internal moisture levels against the aridity gradient of the atmosphere. Aquatic plants and green algae never had to worry about this, but when land plants evolved it was the major hurdle they had to get over to be able to grow on land : they had to be able to contain their water, keep it on the internal side of their epidermis, and prevent dessication (drying out). They did this with the help of something called the cuticle : a waxy hydrophobic layer that covers their skin and prevents moisture from evaporating into the atmosphere. What's weird is that Blossfeldia lacks this - it lacks a cuticle.
What's even weirder is that Blossfeldia is a cactus, and lacks both a protective waxy cuticle and stomata (the gas pores that plants absorb carbon dioxide & transpire water through). Indeed the hundreds of plants we saw on these shale cliffs look like tiny little dried out hockey pucks, many of them barely a centimeter in diameter.
The ability to dry out and match the aridity of the surrounding atmosphere and not die is not unusual for many mosses, ferns and "spikemosses", but it is virtually unheard of in the "higher plants", ie the flowering plants/angiosperms (Myrothamnus in Namibia and the Velloziaceae of South America are exceptions, and other equally bizarre plants worth reading about).
really unique habitat, only growing on a vertical shale cliffs much like Aztekium, Strombocactus, etc