Do you think we can live without plants? Let’s learn five cool plants facts for kids.
Most plants create food from water and sunlight in a process called photosynthesis. But certain plants eat insects for food. These types of plants are called carnivorous plants. An example of a carnivorous plant is the Venus fly trap. The Venus fly trap creates nectar to attract flies and then traps them inside the plant. The fly is then digested by the plant over the period of a week. Then the cycle starts over again.
The name ‘baobab’ means bottle, meaning it is called the bottle tree because of how much water it can store. Baobab trees are native to Africa where there are long dry seasons. During the dry season the Baobab tree survives by storing water while there is little rain. After the rainy season Baobab trees store between 1000 and 120,000 litres of water. That’s enough water to fill 750 bathtubs.
Because of how much water it can store and the importance of water to the ecosystem Baobab trees are also called the tree of life.
Over 70,000 plant species can be used in medicine and many cures for illnesses have been found in places where lots of plant species’ grow. The Amazon rainforest is home to 80,000 plant species and we are still discovering more. The Amazon is sometimes called the ‘World’s Largest Medicine Cabinet’ because there are so many plants there that can help cure illness.
Have you ever tried a spicy pepper? They are spicy for a very important reason. Spicy plants get their spice from a chemical called Capsaicin, which causes pain when you eat it. This helps the plant avoid being eaten by animals in the wild. Unfortunately for the plant humans have developed a taste for spicy foods and eat them in a lot of different dishes. But they are still protected from animals eating them in the wild.
Redwood trees can grow up to 350 feet tall, that’s taller than the Statue of Liberty in New York. These massive trees are so tall that they absorb water through their leaves as well as their roots to avoid the water having to travel all the way up their trunk.
Redwoods help the environment as they absorb more carbon dioxide from the air than any other tree, helping prevent global warming. They also provide a habitat for other plants and animals, some plants grow on the large branches of the Redwood tree. There are even animals that live their whole life in Redwood trees as they are so large.
We hope you enjoyed learning more things about plants as much as we loved teaching you about it. Now that you know how important it is to learn about the plants and how to help our planet Earth, you can move on to learn more about our environmental and scientific matters like: Aquatic Plants, Rewilding, Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation.
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