succulent

Succulent means "juicy" and is often used to describe food. Think a succulent piece of meat, or berries so succulent you’re left sucking juice off your fingertips when you eat them.

You can think of the word suck as hiding inside succulent––an orange you could pierce with a straw and suck the juice out of is succulent indeed. Or remember Desert Survival 101––find a cactus, an aloe, or another of the water-retaining plants known as succulents and drink from them.

Definitions of succulent
1

adj full of juice

“succulent roast beef”
“succulent plants with thick fleshy leaves”
Synonyms:
lush
juicy
full of juice

n a plant adapted to arid conditions and characterized by fleshy water-storing tissues that act as water reservoirs

Types:
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Carpobrotus edulis, Hottentot fig, Hottentot's fig, Mesembryanthemum edule, sour fig
low-growing South African succulent plant having a capsular fruit containing edible pulp
Dorotheanthus bellidiformis, livingstone daisy
low-growing showy succulent annual of South Africa having white or pink or red or orange flowers and spatulate leaves covered in papillae that resemble small crystals
flowering stone, lithops, living stone, stone life face, stone plant, stone-face, stoneface
any plant of the genus Lithops native to Africa having solitary yellow or white flowers and thick leaves that resemble stones
living granite, living rock, stone mimicry plant
highly succulent stemless clump-forming plants with grey-green leaves similar in texture to lumps of granite; South Africa
cactus
any succulent plant of the family Cactaceae native chiefly to arid regions of the New World and usually having spines
aloe
succulent plants having rosettes of leaves usually with fiber like hemp and spikes of showy flowers; found chiefly in Africa
Acanthocereus pentagonus, Acanthocereus tetragonus, pitahaya, pitahaya cactus
cactus of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico having edible juicy fruit
Aporocactus flagelliformis, rat's-tail cactus, rattail cactus
commonly cultivated tropical American cactus having slender creeping stems and very large showy crimson flowers that bloom for several days
Ariocarpus fissuratus, living rock
usually unbranched usually spineless cactus covered with warty tubercles and having magenta flowers and white or green fruit; resembles the related mescal; northeastern Mexico and southwestern United States
Carnegiea gigantea, saguaro, sahuaro
extremely large treelike cactus of desert regions of southwestern United States having a thick columnar sparsely branched trunk bearing white flowers and edible red pulpy fruit
night-blooming cereus
any of several cacti of the genus Cereus
coryphantha
a cactus of the genus Coryphantha
barrel cactus, echinocactus
any cactus of the genus Echinocactus; strongly ribbed and very spiny; southwestern United States to Brazil
hedgehog cereus
cactus of the genus Echinocereus
rainbow cactus
a stout cylindrical cactus of the southwest United States and adjacent Mexico
epiphyllum, orchid cactus
any cactus of the genus Epiphyllum having flattened jointed irregularly branching stems and showy tubular flowers
barrel cactus
a cactus of the genus Ferocactus: unbranched barrel-shaped cactus having deep ribs with numerous spines and usually large funnel-shaped flowers followed by dry fruits
Easter cactus, Hatiora gaertneri, Schlumbergera gaertneri
spring-blooming South American cactus with oblong joints and coral-red flowers; sometimes placed in genus Schlumbergera
night-blooming cereus
any of several cacti of the genus Hylocereus
Lemaireocereus chichipe, chichipe
tall treelike Mexican cactus with edible red fruit
Lophophora williamsii, mescal, mezcal, peyote
a small spineless globe-shaped cactus; source of mescal buttons
mammillaria
any cactus of the genus Mammillaria
Mammillaria plumosa, feather ball
a low tuberculate cactus with white feathery spines; northeastern Mexico
Myrtillocactus geometrizans, garambulla, garambulla cactus
arborescent cactus of western Mexico bearing a small oblong edible berrylike fruit
Knowlton's cactus, Pediocactus knowltonii
small clustering cactus of southwestern United States; a threatened species
nopal
any of several cacti of the genus Nopalea resembling prickly pears
prickly pear, prickly pear cactus
cacti having spiny flat joints and oval fruit that is edible in some species; often used as food for stock
Opuntia cholla, cholla
arborescent cacti having very spiny cylindrical stem segments; southwestern United States and Mexico
mistletoe cactus
a plant of the genus Rhipsalis
Christmas cactus, Schlumbergera baridgesii, Schlumbergera buckleyi
epiphytic cactus of Brazilian ancestry widely cultivated as a houseplant having jointed flat segments and usually rose-purple flowers that bloom in winter
night-blooming cereus
any of several night-blooming cacti of the genus Selenicereus
Schlumbergera truncatus, Thanksgiving cactus, Zygocactus truncatus, crab cactus
South American jointed cactus with usually red flowers; often cultivated as a houseplant; sometimes classified as genus Schlumbergera
Aloe ferox, cape aloe
much-branched South African plant with reddish prickly succulent leaves
Aloe vera, burn plant
very short-stemmed plant with thick leaves with soothing mucilaginous juice; leaves develop spiny margins with maturity; native to Mediterranean region; grown widely in tropics and as houseplants
Type of:
tracheophyte, vascular plant
green plant having a vascular system: ferns, gymnosperms, angiosperms

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