Plant Growth under Desert Conditions

During the last years I have visited desert areas in different parts of the world, and I have found that they were differing more than I had expected from published descriptions. I would, therefore, like to stress some of the differences which were observed. The deserts visited include: (1) The fog desert along the Peruvian coast in the neighborhood of Lima. Dr. Ferreyra and Engineer Postigo were kind enough to take me around and show me some of the typical aspects of this desert including the so-called Lomas. (2) The dust desert which was found in the Northern Sahara around Beni Ounif where Dr. Killian kindly put the facilities of the Station Biologique Saharienne at my disposal. (3) The clear but dry deserts of Southern California and Israel. The latter were visited through the help of Drs. Boyko, Dr. Zohary and Dr. Evenari. The following table gives some comparison between a number of typical localities.