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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 keep the plant safe from animals. Others help a plant meet its need for water, sunlight, or nutrients. Many help seeds survive to germinate (sprout) and become new plants.
Meat-eating Plant
When an insect lands on the Venus’s-flytrap, the plant’s jawlike leaves snap shut, trapping the unfortunate bug. Then the flytrap’s digestive juices dissolve it, turning it into a high-protein meal.
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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 look like grains of green sand floating on water.
Biggest Flower
At three feet across and weighing 20 pounds, the rafflesia is the world’s biggest flower. It is native to the rain forests of Indonesia. The flower grows inside the roots of climbing vines. At first, it looks like a small dark bump. After almost a year, a flower that looks and smells like rotten meat develops. The smell attracts flies. They carry the flower’s pollen to nearby plants, where seeds can develop 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 massive as California’s coulter pine. Its cones are the size and weight of a very large pineapple.
Exploding Plant
Most plants reproduce through seeds. But few scatter their seeds the way the dwarf mistletoe does. When the tiny plant’s pods explode, seeds fly as far as 15 yards away. They travel faster than 60 miles an hour!
Seeds of Life
Most of Earth’s plants reproduce with seeds. The seeds of some plants, such as tomatoes and oranges, grow inside fruit. Evergreens’ seeds form in cones. All seeds have the same three parts: an embryo (young plant), stored food, and a seed coat. The seed coat protects the embryo and its stored food until the air, warmth, and moisture are all just right for the seed to germinate, or start growing.
