In plant terminology, a stress-tolerant is a plant which has
adapted to tolerate extreme stresses in an ecosystem, as opposed
to taking advantage of more fertile areas. These plants are
charactarized by long life, slow growth, slow reproduction, and
extreme hardiness to drought, cold, heat, fire, and other
environmental factors. These plants generally exist in harsh
areas such as deserts and mountaintops, or exist as long-lived
plants in other environments. They reproduce slowly, but are so
hardy and long-lived that they can colonize and thrive in areas
which other plants can not. Due to the harsh conditions they
live in, they can not afford to grow fast or waste energy on
millions of seeds.  In fertile, ideal conditions, these plants
usually are outcompeted by ruderals or competitives. However, in
the case of disturbances such as droughts or fires they can
outsurvive these plants. Stress-Tolerants are usually woody
plants such as trees, or slow-growing desert plants such as
cacti. Often they become extremely