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Think about that cotton shirt in your closet. The berries on your breakfast cereal. The carrots in your lunch. If there were no plants in the world, none of these things would exist.
Plants vary from microscopic algae in the water to huge sequoia trees. But what exactly is a plant? A plant is a living thing that captures and uses the Sun’s energy to make its own food. Come meet some of the more than 350,000 species, or kinds, of plants and see how important they are.
◀ The fruits and vegetables we eat are different parts of plants.
▲ Each year, logs from millions of trees around the world are cut into lumber and used for all kinds of construction, as well as in products from baseball bats to pencils.
Botanists are scientists who study plants. Many botanists divide plants into two groups.
Plants with Roots, Stems, and Leaves
Fern
Blue Spruce
Cactus
Grass
Apple Tree
Palm Tree
Plants without Roots, Stems, and Leaves
Moss
Liverwort
Green Algae
◀ Almost every part of a cotton plant is used. The fluffy white fiber is spun into thread. The seeds are covered with short fibers called linters, which are used in making items from mops to explosives. Machines crush the seeds to squeeze out the oil for a variety of food items.
Check It Out!
Which in each pair is a plant?
1) Spearmint or mold
2) Maple tree or mushroom
3) Oats or mildew
Spearmint, maple tree, oats
