In the deserts of southwestern North America lives a plant known as the Resurrection Plant. It belongs to a group of plants known as Lycopods, whose members go by the common names of ground pines and club mosses. Lycopods are small plants that usually grow in moist locations. They lack flowers, fruits, and seeds; reproducing by single-celled spores. Their leaves are not true leaves, but leaf-like extensions of the stem.
The Resurrection Plant is different from other Lycopods in that it grows in dry, arid desert habitats. It has a special adaptation that allows it to live in this harsh environment. When the soil is moist after the infrequent rains that the deserts receive, the Resurrection Plant absorbs water and grows rapidly, producing a flat rosette of scaly stems up to one foot across. As the soil dries, it cannot store water like its succulent neighbors the cacti, so it folds up its stems into a tight ball as it dehydrates and goes into a state of dormancy. The plant can tolerate almost complete water loss in its vegetative tissues. The folded plant has a greatly reduced surface area, which helps conserve what little internal moisture is present. All its metabolic functions are reduced to a bare minimum, and it appears to be dead.
The desiccated plant can remain alive in this dried state for several years. The plant is able to do this because of large amounts of sucrose that it accumulates in its tissues. This sugar has the property of stabilizing enzymes and cellular structures in the absence of water. When the rains return, the plant’s cells rehydrate, the stems unfold, metabolism increases, and growth resumes.
In the eastern United States, there is a species of evergreen fern called the Resurrection Fern. This species is an epiphyte or air plant, and grows on the shaded branches of trees and occasionally on rocks and logs. Like most epiphytes, Resurrection Ferns get their nutrients from the air and from water and nutrients that collect on the surface upon which they are growing. Instead of true roots, they have rhizoids with which they attach themselves to surfaces. The ferns can survive long periods of drought by curling up their leaf fronds with their bottom sides upwards. In this way, they can rehydrate more quickly when rain comes, as water is more easily absorbed through the bottom of the leaves. During dry spells, the ferns appear dessicated, gray-brown, and dead, but when they are watered, they quickly uncurl and reopen, turning a bright green. Experiments have shown that this species can lose up to 97 percent of its internal water and remain alive, although they more typically only lose 76 percent of their water during dry spells.
These resurrection plants are a lesson in nature reminding us of the resurrection of Christ and the soon resurrection of the righteous dead at His second coming. Christ said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” John 11:25. “At the Saviour’s resurrection a few graves were opened, but at His second coming all the precious dead shall hear His voice, and shall come forth to glorious, immortal life. The same power that raised Christ from the dead will raise His church, and glorify it with Him, above all principalities, above all powers, above every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come.” The Desire of Ages, 787.
David Arbour writes from his home in De Queen, Arkansas. He may be contacted by e-mail at: landmarks@stepstolife.org.