Their leaves may be small, gray-colored, leathery, or arranged to reduce the amount of sunlight that strikes them. Their stomata may be structured to conserve moisture. Many plants from desert and Mediterranean climates are of this type, with the Russian olive as a typical example. Many people plant trees in soil with undesirable characteristics, which affects how plants respond to drought or to too much watering during drought. To understand this plant response and how you can deal with it, you need to know a little about how plants get their water.
Plants get most of their water directly from soil surrounding their roots.
The soil s physical characteristics largely govern the amount of water that it can hold and the amount available for plant use. By the same token, these same physical soil properties govern how much air is in the soil surrounding plant roots. Both water and air exist in the pore space surrounding individual soil particles and aggregates. In an ideal situation, about half the volume of soil surrounding roots should be solid mineral or organic material and about half pore space. Ideally, about half the pore space should hold air and about half, water.