Desert rhubarb

Rheum palaestinum

''Rheum palaestinum'', the desert rhubarb, is a plant indigenous to Israel and Jordan, with the most highly efficient water gathering capabilities known in botany.
Rheum palaestinum Overlooking Ramon Crater  Desert rhubarb,Geotagged,Israel,Spring,palaestinum

Appearance

The plant has broad, rigid leaves, with a waxy surface, and channels cut into them that funnel any water that drops onto them toward its root, with enough force to cause deep soil penetration. An alternative explanation for the evolution of the unique morphology of the rheum's leaf is that the wrinkled leaf has specifically developed its unique "architecture" as a vapor-trap, tightly capping the ground to harvest water by sub-foliar condensation of vapor rising from the earth.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Taxonomy
KingdomPlantae
DivisionAngiosperms
ClassEudicots
OrderCaryophyllales
FamilyPolygonaceae
GenusRheum
SpeciesR. palaestinum
Photographed in
Israel