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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  • gaystyleJoker [she/her]@hexbear.netMEnglish
    5·
    2 months ago

    HELLO THIS IS THE MEGA SIGN UP POST/LIST POST

    if you have a preferred week please tell me

    Shaleesh* (5/25 - 5/31)
GayTuckerCarlson* (6/1 - 6/7)
SwitchyandWitchy* (6/8 - 6/14)
Alisu* (6/15 - 6/21)
peanutbuttercupola* (6/22 - 6/28)
Disaster_of_Passion* (6/29 - 7/5)
Eco* (7/6 - 7/12)

    ​ * after name denotes someone who has posted before and will be skipped by first-time posters

  • sodium_nitride [she/her, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    I’ve decided:

    1. Am just gonna start girlmodding to uni. My jacket of protection is so run down I can’t defend it anymore. Shit is literally RIPPING APART AT THE SEAMS. Not to mention the sweltering heat which I just can’t stand
    2. If anyone has a problem with me at uni fuck them.
    3. If anyone asks questions, “I was always a girl you just didn’t notice, and I thought it was funny to let you think otherwise”

    This is a big step for me cause I’m going from “never girlmodes” to basically coming out permanently. Please hold me to this descision and don’t let me change my mind.

    suicide mention (technically I guess)

    Although the summer season is the reason I am doing this, atp, fuck it. I can’t take being in the closet anymore. Shit be so bad I CAN’T FOCUS ON MY LECTURES CAUSE I’M CONSTANTLY THINKING ABOUT OFFING MYSELF. Fucking christ.

  • RION [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    Feeling both proud and lucky that I’ve been able to make emotionally supportive friends I can go to when I’m struggling. Never really had that before.

  • nine99 [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago
    bullshit from cishet guys

    Why do some cishet guys feel so entitled to justifications of my sexuality? I present somewhat fruity, so like half of the ones I meet eventually ask me if I’m gay in an inflammatory tone. They are of course never satisfied when I say that I just like people and will always push and push either inmediately or in the next few days. Are you unable to read body language and figure out that I’m not okay with talking about that to you? I know the entire world is made for you so you can go around making people uncomfortable with no consequences but at some point your introspection has got to kick in.

  • BountifulEggnog [it/its, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago

    Been feeling better the last couple of days, lunch with my lesbian friend was super nice, never had plantains before and holy shit they were good. Kinda expensive but good. Then we went and picked up a mattress lol.

    I’ve still got a few more things I want to pack up, we aren’t doing it all at once or anything but I’d like to get as much moved as possible.

    Also need to shave everything sooooo bad it looks terrible, worst it’s been since I started :/ disappointing tbh, just a really rough few weeks…

    • LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins [none/use name, any]@hexbear.netEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      Kinda expensive but good

      And they’re super easy to make since you just roast them or fry them and they’re good both savory and sweet

      The last thing i did at work that got a plantain nerd all got and bothered was just a lil bit of salt, a little lil bit of allspice, nutmeg and cloves, a bunch of cumin, brown sugar, a little bit of cinnamon and some pureed ginger, tossed all that together with some frozen apple slices and roasted hot until they brown and the insides start to kinda bubble out (maybe roasting less would be good though because theres so much caramelization at that point that bits can kinda stick to your teeth). I’ve also done them with a coconut milk syrup glaze and that’s been pretty good and that’d go good with that too

      I WANTED to do the thing with the apples but also make like a pie crust with pulverized ginger crackers but everybody I suggested it to was like “that’d be weird” and then the sous chef told me “no don’t do that”

      Also if you like plantains you might like tostones too which are under ripe plantains that get fried and then flattened and then fried again and served with sauces and stuff

      • BountifulEggnog [it/its, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        4·
        2 months ago

        Didn’t have too long because I’m at work, it was a whole sandwich with steak and lettuce and some other stuff on it with plantains as the bun. They also had the best fries I’ve had in years. Oh it was so good.

        I’ll have to try making them at some point, tostones sound really good too. Next time I go I’ll see if they have them

  • XiaCobolt [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    13·
    2 months ago
    I'm getting really close to just completely cutting my father out of my life (CW transphobia, racism, parental trauma, mention of SA)

    He asked me how I was going and I said sincerely that I was actually feeling really bad. That hearing that the premier of the state I live in say I should go to a men’s prison if I commit a crime, had caused me to have nightmares about being SA-d to death in prison (true nightmare I had).

    And no sympathy, no “that’s awful”, he just said “oh well he has to say that to win over Muslim voters in the western suburbs of Sydney”. I’m done with this man.