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Over millions of years, plants have changed to survive on almost every part of our planet.
That kind of change is called adaptation. Some adaptations help protect a plant from animals. Others help a plant get water, sunlight, or food. Many help seeds to germinate (sprout) and become new plants.
Meat-eating Plant
An insect lands on a Venus’s-flytrap. The jawlike leaves close up, trapping the unfortunate bug. The flytrap’s digestive juices dissolve the bug. It makes a high-protein meal for the plant.
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Smallest Plant
Wolffia is also called duckweed. A bouquet of a dozen wolffia will fit on the head of a pin. These tiny aquatic plants float on water. They look like grains of green sand.
Biggest Flower
Native to the rain forests of Indonesia, the rafflesia is the world’s biggest flower. It’s three feet across and weighs about 20 pounds. It starts as a small dark bump inside the roots of climbing vines. After almost a year, a flower forms. It looks and smells like rotten meat. That smell attracts flies, which carry the flower’s pollen to nearby plants. There, seeds form to make new rafflesia plants.
Biggest Pine Cone
There are about 100 species of pine trees in the world. Only one has a cone as huge as California’s coulter pine. Its cones are the size and weight of a very big pineapple.
Exploding Plant
Most plants reproduce with seeds. But few plants scatter their seeds the way the tiny dwarf mistletoe does. When its pods explode, the seeds fly as far as 15 yards. They travel faster than 60 miles an hour!
Seeds of Life
Most plants reproduce with seeds. The seeds of some plants grow inside fruit. Think of tomatoes and oranges. Evergreens’ seeds form in cones. All seeds have the same three parts. The parts are an embryo (young plant), stored food, and a seed coat. The seed coat protects the embryo and its stored food. When the air, warmth, and moisture are all just right, the seed germinates. That means it starts growing.
