Cacti.

I remember begging my mom once when we were at Walmart to let me buy a cactus. She caved, and I picked out the most perfect one I could find. I had learned about deserts either in school or on some PBS show, and how they are really dry, but once a year, a monsoon comes and floods everything with water. The cacti in the desert held all of that water so everything could survive until the next monsoon! So, after about a week, I flooded the tiny plastic pot that held my dear my cactus. It did not survive.