Ephemeral plant

Desert ephemerals are plants which are adapted to take advantage of the short wet periods in arid climates.

In areas subjected to recurring human disturbance, such as plowing, weedy ephemerals are very short-lived plants whose entire life cycle takes less than a growing season.

In each case, the species has a life cycle timed to exploit a short period when resources are freely available.

Alternatively, some perennial desert plants may die back to their underground parts and become dormant when there is not enough water available.

Plants which have short life spans, rapid rates of growth, and high levels of seed production are also termed ruderals.

Trillium grandiflorum in the foreground and the smaller Thalictrum thalictroides in the background are both spring ephemerals of North American deciduous forests
This normally bare desert in Namaqualand, Goegap Nature Reserve in South Africa has a proliferation of flowers and desert ephemerals during the brief spring wet season