Decorating houses with plants has become a fashion these days. Years back, when there were houses with backyards, families would plant their trees and flowers to be connected with nature always.
But today, it has become a trend to decorate the inside of houses with plants. Some people love keeping the rose plant at their windows, while some love cacti. Both the plants are somewhat similar in appearance but have many differences.
Key Takeaways
- Roses are flowering plants from the family Rosaceae, known for their fragrant flowers and thorns. At the same time, cacti are succulent plants from the family Cactaceae, characterized by their spines, thick stems, and water-storing abilities.
- Roses require regular watering and pruning, while cacti are low-maintenance plants that can survive with minimal water and care.
- Both plants have protective features, with roses having thorns and cacti having spines, but they differ in appearance, growth requirements, and cultural significance.
Rose vs Cactus
Rose is a flowering plant with over 100 types of it and does not store the water that is used for watering it. Cactus wins over rose in terms of varieties as there are more than 2000 species of cactus, and it also stores the water in it.
A rose is a flowering plant with more than three hundred different species known to the world. A rose is very cherished for its beauty and fragrance and is grown in Asia mostly.
The size and shape of this flowering plant vary according to the climate it is grown in. Rose is also known as the wild rose as it was grown in wild habitat initially, but due to its beauty, people grow them for commercial use.
A cactus is a plant that has looks like a green cushion with thorns all over it. This plant does not have leaves like others but has areoles: a type of special branch that prevents the water stored inside the plant from drying.
A cactus does not need a good water facility or soil to grow, due to which it grows in deserts the most.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Rose | Cactus |
|---|---|---|
| Leaves | Sharply toothed oval leaves. | It does not have leaves. |
| Physical description | Erect shrub with stems covered with thorns. | Small cushion-like structure with spines. |
| Number of species | More than 300 types. | 2000 types. |
| Family | Rosaceae | Cactaceae |
| Habitat | Moist and well drained soil and high temperature. | It requires a high temperature and low moisture. |
What is Rose?
A rose is a flowering plant that belongs to the Rosaceae family and the genus Rosa. A rose is a perennial plant with more than three hundred species and ten thousand cultivars.
The shapes and sizes of this plant are always different, and the flowers are big and attractive. Roses have many different colors ranging from pure white; yellow to red.
Most of the species are found in Asia, while some are in Europe, America, and north-western Africa. Roses are grown as cultivars as their beauty and fragrance mesmerize the viewer that differ depending on the climate.
Roses grow and form a group of plants that can be considered as; erect shrubs, climbing or trailing with their stems covered with sharp thorns or prickles.
The leaves of this plant grow alternatively and pinnately in an oval-shaped leaflet that has a sharp-toothed tip.
Roses grown in wild habitats have five petals, and the roses that are commercially grown have petals double that of the wild roses. Roses are delicate and can get infected with many diseases.
The most common disease that infects a rose is fungi infection. When a rose is infected by fungus, powdery mildew appears on the surface in greyish white moldlike cover on the leaves and stem area.
What is Cactus?
A cactus is a plant that belongs to the Cactaceae family. This family has over 127 genera with 1750 known species of the Caryophyllales order.
The term cactus is a Latin word derived from the Ancient Greek work kaktos: which is the name used by Theophrastus to refer to plants with spines that didn’t have an identity for now.
Cactus are grown in many shapes and sizes, and most of these plants grow in a habitat with a drought climate while some of them grow in a humid environment.
Cactus are succulents that mean they have thick fleshy parts that are adapted to store water as they grow in a place where water is rarely available.
The stem is the only part of the cactus that is fluted and allows the plant to expand and contract quickly to absorb water, where this crucial process occurs. The leaves of many cactus have been modified long back and changed to spines.
These spines protect the plant from herbivores animals and prevent water loss by minimizing the flow of air near the cactus and providing shade to it.
As this plant does not have leaves, the enlarged stems carry out the photosynthesis process. The spines are made with areoles which is a type of highly reduced branch and this branch is the feature due to which the cactus is identified.
Main Differences Between Rose and Cactus
- A rose is a flowering plant that grows in a moist environment, whereas a cactus is a succulent plant that grows in a humid environment.
- A rose is an erect woody plant that has a flowering part and a stem covered with prickles, whereas a cactus is a succulent plant with thorns all over its body.
- The flower rose belongs to the rosacea family, whereas the cactus plant belongs to the Cactaceae family.
- There are more than 300 species known of roses, whereas more than 2000 species of cactus are known.
- The leaves of a rose are grown alternatively oval with a sharp tip, whereas a cactus does not have leaves but large stems that do photosynthesis.
- https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ja01148a097
- https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10722-006-9196-z
Last Updated : 20 July, 2023
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Piyush Yadav has spent the past 25 years working as a physicist in the local community. He is a physicist passionate about making science more accessible to our readers. He holds a BSc in Natural Sciences and Post Graduate Diploma in Environmental Science. You can read more about him on his bio page.
