A desert receives very little rain, yet the plants that live there are rarely small by accident. T saguaro cac stores wa in a ple trunk th swells af a st and shr slowly thr the d months. Its roots spread wide instead of deep, so that a brief shower soaking only the top few centimetres of soil is still captured. Spines replace leaves, because a spine loses almost no water and also discourages animals. Growth is the price of all this caution: a saguaro may take a decade to reach knee height.

Type only the missing letters. Each box is one letter, and the number of boxes matches the letters that are missing.