drylands
Every article and hero in Arborpedia that touches this subject.
№ 001TreesAcacia: The Thorn Trees That Hold the Drylands
Nitrogen-fixing dryland keystones, the ant partnerships and chemical defences, and the reverse-phenology tree that fertilises crops beneath it.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 087WaterClay Pot Irrigation: The Buried Olla That Waters Its Own Roots
An ancient, astonishingly efficient method: a porous unglazed clay pot buried to its neck and filled with water seeps moisture straight to the roots on demand, wasting almost nothing to evaporation or runoff.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 102WaterContour Bunds: Stone Lines That Hold the Rain on the Slope
The low stone or earth walls laid along the contour that slow runoff, spread it across the land, drop its sediment, and let it soak in — the simplest and most widespread of all dryland water-harvesting structures.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 119TreesDate Palm: The Tree That Made the Oasis Possible
A desert palm that tolerates heat, drought and salt, offsets its own shade for the crops beneath it, and is propagated only from offshoots.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 129WaterDew Harvesting: Drinking from the Night Air
The old and new attempts to collect water from dew and condensation — from dew ponds and stone mulch to modern radiative condensers — a modest but real source where rain fails and even fog is absent.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 140RestorationDryland Restoration: Zai Pits, Half-Moons, and Farmer-Managed Regeneration
The low-cost techniques that reversed desertification across the Sahel — planting pits, contour bunds, and protecting the root systems already underground.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 242TreesJuniper: Gin, Dryland Cover, and a Species in Trouble
The most widely distributed conifer on earth, the cone that everyone calls a berry, and why British juniper is failing to regenerate.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 263CropsLentils and Chickpeas: Protein That Stores for Years
Dryland pulses that fix their own nitrogen and dry down to a staple — plus why they are the most calorie-dense thing a temperate garden produces.
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№ 312TreesNeem: The Village Pharmacy Tree
A dryland tree whose seed oil is the most widely used botanical insecticide there is — plus the biopiracy case that reshaped patent law.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 316TreesNitrogen-Fixing Food Trees: Carob, Honey Locust, Mesquite
Trees that feed the soil and feed you. Carob, honey locust, mesquite, and a handful of others deliver food, fodder, and free nitrogen.
Jun 2026Read →
№ 358TreesPistachio: The Desert Nut That Splits Its Own Shell
A dryland nut tree that tolerates heat and salt, needs cold winters and both sexes, and crops heavily only every other year.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 364TreesPomegranate: Drought-Hard, Long-Lived, and Split by Rain
An ancient desert fruit that suckers into a thicket, tolerates salt and drought, and splits its fruit if watered unevenly at ripening.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 407WaterSalinity: The Slow Poisoning of Irrigated Land
How irrigation turns productive ground saline, the difference between salinity and sodicity, and the drainage and species choices that hold it back.
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№ 408WaterSand Dams: Storing Water Inside a Riverbed
A concrete wall built across a seasonal sandy river traps sand behind it, and the sand stores water — a simple, cheap, evaporation-proof reservoir that has transformed water supply across the drylands of East Africa.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 427TreesShea and Argan: The Oil Trees Held by Women
Two dryland trees whose nut oils sustain both households and export economies — and whose value depends on protecting slow-growing wild parklands.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 452WaterSpate Irrigation: Farming the Flash Flood
An ancient dryland method that diverts the brief, muddy floods of seasonal rivers onto fields — irrigating and fertilising them in a single event, and growing crops in places with almost no reliable rain.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 482TreesTamarind and Carob: The Sweet Pods of Dry Country
Two leguminous pod trees that store sweetness in a drought-hard package — one the sour base of a world of cooking, the other a chocolate substitute and a measure of weight.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 537WaterZai Pits: The Planting Holes That Reclaimed the Sahel
The small manure-filled planting pits that catch rain, concentrate fertility, and have brought hardened, abandoned farmland back into production across the dry lands of West Africa.
Jul 2026Read →