Cactus
Fungi, bacteria and viruses attack cacti, the first two particularly when plants are over-watered. Fusarium rot can gain entry through a wound and cause rotting accompanied by red-violet mold. ""Helminosporium" rot" is caused by "Bipolaris cactivora" ( "Helminosporium cactivorum"); "Phytophthora" species also cause similar rotting in cacti. Fungicides may be of limited value in combating these diseases. Several viruses have been found in cacti, including cactus virus X. These appear to cause only limited visible symptoms, such as chlorotic (pale green) spots and mosaic effects (streaks and patches of paler color). However, in an "Agave" species, cactus virus X has been shown to reduce growth, particularly when the roots are dry. There are no treatments for virus diseases.
Cactus
Although in most cacti, the stem acts as the main organ for storing water, some cacti have in addition large taproots. These may be several times the length of the above-ground body in the case of species such as "Copiapoa atacamensis", which grows in one of the driest places in the world, the Atacama Desert in northern Chile.
Photosynthesis requires plants to take in carbon dioxide gas (). As they do so, they lose water through transpiration. Like other types of succulents, cacti reduce this water loss by the way in which they carry out photosynthesis. "Normal" leafy plants use the C mechanism: during daylight hours, is continually drawn out of the air present in spaces inside leaves and converted first into a compound containing three carbon atoms (3-phosphoglycerate) and then into products such as carbohydrates. The access of air to internal spaces within a plant is controlled by stomata, which are able to open and close. The need for a continuous supply of during photosynthesis means the stomata must be open, so water vapor is continuously being lost. Plants using the C mechanism lose as much as 97% of the water taken up through their roots in this way. A further problem is that as temperatures rise, the enzyme that captures starts to capture more and more oxygen instead, reducing the efficiency of photosynthesis by up to 25%.