This Shrub Thrives in Death Valley’s Scorching Temperatures. Where Do Its Heat-Tolerant Superpowers Come From?

Tidestromia oblongifolia thrives in high heat—and scientists think it may hold the key to making food crops more resilient amid global warming

Sarah Kuta - Daily Correspondent

November 24, 2025 11:22 a.m.

T. oblongifolia thrives in Death Valley's high temperatures. Karine Prado

Death Valley is legendarily one of the most extreme places on Earth, with summer temperatures regularly skyrocketing above 120 degrees Fahrenheit. This desert, located in eastern California, is also incredibly dry, receiving less than two inches of rainfall on average each year.

Few plants can endure these severe conditions. But some—including a pale green flowering shrub called Tidestromia oblongifolia—not only survive in Death Valley, but thrive there*.* How?

Scientists who examined T. oblongifolia, also known as Arizona honeysweet, found that  found that the plants' abilities to alter their cellular innards and functioning genes may grant them their heat-loving superpowers.. Their findings, published November 17 in the journal Current Biology, could help researchers create plants that are more resilient to climate change.

“Understanding their adaptations could help researchers design crops, environments and management strategies to improve growth under increasingly frequent and prolonged high temperatures,” says study co-author Seung Yon “Sue” Rhee, a plant biologist at Michigan State University (MSU), to Live Science’s Sarah Wild.

Quick Fact: Death Valley stands out among deserts

Death Valley holds the record as the hottest place on Earth, with the highest temperature reaching 134 degrees Fahrenheit. It’s also the driest site in North America, as less than 2 inches of rain fall there annually.

Researchers have long been intrigued by T. oblongifolia, which belongs to the same family as crops like quinoa, amaranth, spinach and sugar beet. oblongifolia* seems to be uniquely well-suited for a life of extreme heat. Its optimal temperature for photosynthesis—the process of using sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to create energy—for example, is around 117 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas other plants typically top out at around 104 degrees.

“These plants wait [for] the hottest month just to grow fast,” says co-author Karine Prado, also a plant biologist at MSU, to Science News’ Siddhant Pusdekar.

Researchers wanted to uncover the specific cellular and genetic mechanisms underpinning T. oblongifolia’s unusually high heat tolerance. So, they gathered seeds from plants growing in southern and eastern California, some of which were in Death Valley National Park.

Back in the lab, they planted the seeds in special growth chambers with adjustable conditions. For eight weeks, they kept the temperature around 88 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, the researchers cranked up the heat on some of the plants to around 117 degrees, mimicking typical July conditions in Death Valley.

Researchers gathered seeds from Death Valley, then observed them in special growth chambers. Sterling Field

Within a couple days, the plants exposed to a desert-like environment had ramped up their photosynthesis rates. And within ten days, they had ballooned in size, tripling their biomass by sprouting lots of leaves that were smaller than those grown at lower temperatures.

“When we first brought these seeds back to the lab, we were fighting just to get them to grow,” Prado says in a statement. “But once we managed to mimic Death Valley conditions in our growth chambers, they took off.”

The plants also made some internal adjustments that could only be seen under a microscope.

Those grown with Death Valley conditions had more energy-producing structures called mitochondria within their cells. Those organelles also moved closer to the chloroplasts, specialized structures responsible for performing photosynthesis. Further, some chloroplasts changed shape, transforming into rare cup-like structures that scientists had only previously observed in algae. Prado suspects the shape may help the plant capture carbon dioxide more efficiently, per Science News.

At the genetic level, T. oblongifolia switched on some genes involved in protecting cellular structures from heat damage. The plants also began producing more of a key protein for photosynthesis.

Scientists suspect all these adaptations work in harmony to give T. oblongifolia a unique advantage in Death Valley. So, replicating *T. oblongifolia’*s extraordinary qualities in other plants likely won’t be as simple as “tweaking one or two genes or proteins,” Ive De Smet, a biologist at Ghent University in Belgium who was not involved with the research, tells Science News.

Still, the researchers hope their findings might one day help them make food crops more resilient to rising temperatures.

“Desert plants have spent millions of years solving the challenges we’re only beginning to face,” Rhee says in the statement. “We finally have the tools … to learn from them. What we need now is broader support to pursue this kind of research.”

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