• Endangered plants are at risk of dying out.Jupiterimages/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  The desert is home to many types of endangered plants, from cacti to trees. There are a number of factors that can cause a plant species to become endangered. Understanding how a species becomes endangered is one way to start solving the problems that limit plants' ability to reproduce.
  
  

Loss of Habitat

• Human interference in the desert is a contributing factor in causing plant species to become endangered. The disruption of fragile ecosystems interrupts the life cycle of plants, causes damage or simply limits the amount of space plants have to reproduce. Building roads, houses and cities in the desert destroys the habitat of many plants, some of which can survive only in specific areas of the desert. Habitat loss contributes greatly to making species endangered.
  
  

Invasive Species

• Invasive species of both plants and animals plays a role in causing desert plants to become endangered. The introduction of a non-native animal can subject plants to a threat that it is not equipped to deal with; an animal can eat plants and prevent them from reproducing, or eat seeds and stop them from germinating. Invasive plants may be resistant to dangers that native plants are not, which allows invasive species to crowd out native species.
  
  

Climate Change

• Climate change in the form of rising temperatures and more extreme weather patterns causes plants to become endangered. Many desert plants can survive only within a specific temperature range, and as global temperatures rise, desert plants are forced to seek higher altitudes or different growing conditions in order to survive. Desert plants that are unable to adapt to a quickly changing environment are in danger of becoming endangered or extinct.