Your car broke down and now you're wandering through the desert (even though you should have stayed with your car, but we'll ignore that for now). You've run out of water and wonder what you can possibly do to find some to quench your overpowering thirst. You take out your laptop with your satellite connection and find this blog, which has the answer. Thank goodness, you will survive!It's just a matter of becoming acquainted with the right plant. In this case it's a shrub called black greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus). Greasewood has a long tap root and reaches down to the water table. Sometimes this tap root can grow more than 20 feet deep, but often it's less than 10 feet deep, especially when you see quite a few greasewood plants as in the photo above.
Greasewood grows in many areas of the Western North America and is easy to spot with its bright green color. It usually is found in the cold deserts and on slightly saline soil.
In this photo we can see the small staminate flowers on the greasewood plant, looking like little cones. The pistillate flowers are generally found in leaf axils below the staminate flowers, and wind pollinates the plant. Winged seeds can blow almost one-half mile away.
Not all is nice with greasewood, though. It has sharp thorns that can puncture a tire, so if you're driving near it, watch out. These thorns help protect the plant from overgrazing.
One of the neat things about greasewood is that the leaves are deciduous, so they fall off in the winter or when it is too dry. The plant then becomes rather dreary looking in the nearly monochrome desert vegetation community. If you happen to get lost in winter you'll have to look a little more to find this shrub. When you do, start digging. You probably think I'm just saying this for fun and it's all theoretical, but it really works. My husband has dug in several greasewood stands to develop springs for cattle, and nearly always he's found water.
So I don't recommend going out and getting lost in the desert and running out of water, but just in case you do, you'll know what to do. Just make sure you have a shovel in your survival kit so you don't ruin your nails. Or even better, use a backhoe like my husband.
Greasewood grows in many areas of the Western North America and is easy to spot with its bright green color. It usually is found in the cold deserts and on slightly saline soil. 
In this photo we can see the small staminate flowers on the greasewood plant, looking like little cones. The pistillate flowers are generally found in leaf axils below the staminate flowers, and wind pollinates the plant. Winged seeds can blow almost one-half mile away.
Not all is nice with greasewood, though. It has sharp thorns that can puncture a tire, so if you're driving near it, watch out. These thorns help protect the plant from overgrazing.
One of the neat things about greasewood is that the leaves are deciduous, so they fall off in the winter or when it is too dry. The plant then becomes rather dreary looking in the nearly monochrome desert vegetation community. If you happen to get lost in winter you'll have to look a little more to find this shrub. When you do, start digging. You probably think I'm just saying this for fun and it's all theoretical, but it really works. My husband has dug in several greasewood stands to develop springs for cattle, and nearly always he's found water. 
So I don't recommend going out and getting lost in the desert and running out of water, but just in case you do, you'll know what to do. Just make sure you have a shovel in your survival kit so you don't ruin your nails. Or even better, use a backhoe like my husband.
4 comments:
My husband wants me to add that if you're dying of thirst, digging a hole an interminable distance to reach a trickle of water may not be the best use of your energy or resources. I say, head towards the greasewood and you might get lucky and find a place where the water reaches the surface soon after, like a spring or wetland! And if you feel like digging, go for it.
There is always a sure fire way to get rescued or at least spotted when you are in the middle of nowhere. Don your brightest red raincoat and then use the restroom. Before you know it a small bush plane will fly overhead and spot you!
I like the using-the-spouse trick. Sounds like something my wife would say.
UP
ah, anonymous, you never did forget Alaska did you? I wonder if the people in the bush plane forgot, hmmm
gs
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