Plants
What is a Plant?
Plants are full of surprises. When we ask ourselves questions such as "What is a plant?" and "How do adult plants make new plants?" we discover that the world of plants is exciting and often mysterious.
Plants include magnificent trees and colourful flowers, as well as many strange mosses and ferns.
While humans need
to eat to get energy, most plants can produce their own food through a
process known as photosynthesis,
through which plants capture energy from the sun, and convert it into
carbohydrate for growth.
Some carnivorous plants capture and digest insects to get extra energy. One such insect-eating plant is Bladderwort. Other plants are parasites, stealing nutrients from other living things.
Although millions of different types of these living things are grouped together under the name "Plants", many of them are worlds apart in terms of how they look, feed and reproduce.
We most often see plants growing in soil on land, from lowlands to high mountain-tops. However, millions of plants grow underneath and above water, such as Water Lilies and Duckweed.
Plants can be found in ponds, on lakes and in rivers (for example Water
Crowfoot) or even in the tiniest puddles. Many algae
live in the sea as well as in fresh water.
Some plants, grow on other plants, like the harmless ephiphytic Orchids. Others cause harm to the plants on which they grow, like the parasitic Broomrapes, which stick their roots right into other plants to steal nutrients.
Are Plants Important?
Yes. Life on Earth depends on plants. Plants are an essential food source for many living things, including of course, us humans.
Plants such as wheat, vegetables and fruit provide food for humans, and other living things.
Plants are at the bottom of food chains. They capture energy from the sun, and pass it up through living things, as herbivores eat plants, then carnivores eat herbivores.
Plants produce the oxygen we need to breathe, and they use up carbon dioxide, an important job for a healthy atmosphere.
Click here to find out about the Evolution of Plants.
Fun Fact: Fungi, such as mushrooms and toadstools, are not plants. None of them can produce their own food (through photosynthesis) as most plants can. Instead, fungi take their food from other sources, absorbing it from the surrounding soil and plants.
Because they are so weird and wonderful, and because they have similarities to plants, we will explore fungi in the biodiversity pages here. To explore fungi click on the toadstool.
Click for
Fungi.
plants