Humans, squirrels, and other kinds of animals too numerous to mention store things away to last through times of stress—particularly between the onset of winter and the first harvests of spring or early summer. Stored food often is all that's standing between survival and starvation. Our desert denizens learned this well—those that didn't have long since passed away.
But animals aren't the only things to store away food. During the
fall, many plants are busily moving nutrients out of their leaves and into their roots
for storage. Now most of them don't have to worry about using up food stores during
the cold season, for winter is the dormant season for most, requiring almost no
resources. But those that shed their leaves or die down to the ground have major
construction needs come spring. New growth requires energy, and lots of it. Those
plants without good stores of energy build poorly, and are all too apt to succumb to
disease or competition. The story of the grasshopper and the ant fits all too well both
animal and plant.
Contributor: Arthur H. Harris, Laboratory for Environmental Biology, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso.
Desert Diary is a joint production of the Centennial Museum and KTEP National Public Radio at the University of Texas at El Paso.