The desert’s ‘resurrection plant’ paving the way to fridge-free vaccines

It lives in deserts where not a drop of rain falls for months, and botanists call it the resurrection plant for its seemingly miraculous return to life. When it receives no water, it looks brittle, shrunken and brownish — apparently dead. But as soon as the first drops begin to fall, its leaves unfurl and turn green within hours. The best-known example is the rose of Jericho (Selaginella lepidophylla), but there are others, and all are able to survive almost completely desiccated thanks to, among other mechanisms, a sugar called trehalose that protects the plant’s cells until water returns.

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