IT'S ALIVE The Sun sets over a lonely desert Near the bottom of a rocky ridge a scientist sits near a small group of wildflowers As pretty as the flowers are the scientist is not there simply to admire their yellow petals She is a botanist at work in the field trying to understand some of the longest running mysteries of life on planet Earth FIELD NOTES A botanist is a scientist who studies plants Like doctors who specialize in a wide range of medical studies botanists can be experts in many different matters of plant life
It is easy to know that people are alive They can move speak and do all sorts of things that show they are living breathing and thinking The same is true for animals But what about plants Sometimes the easiest way to know a plant is living is to notice its growth Some plants grow slowly Others can grow quickly enough to see changes almost every day Bamboo trees are among the fastest growing plants on Earth In the right conditions some bamboo trees can grow as much as 35 inches 89 meters in a single day
The Saguaro cactus grows very slowly In its first 10 years of life a single cactus will grow to be less than two inches five centimeters high But they can live to be 200 years old and eventually reach 40 to 60 feet 12 18 meters in height
