Desert Worlds

The saguaro features a pleated surface which allows it to expand to contain all the water it needs: it can hold over a thousand gallons. During dry times, it can pull from this source to grow and produce flowers and seeds. When fully loaded, the cactus won't need to absorb water for an entire year.

The elephant has a special relationship with the baobab, eating its fruit and spreading its seeds. The elephant also uses this tree as a key water source during migration, using it's water-rich inner wood to quench their thirst on long migrations. This damages the baobab, but it normally regenerates. Global warming has disrupted this cycle.

Tristerix seeds travel in bird droppings, when they land on a cactus they grow long probe-like stems, that latch onto the cactus body and inject it with parasitic threads. A year later Tristerix bursts out of the cactus skin as a bloom of beautiful flowers that attract hummingbird pollinators.