Plants

Plants are living organisms, although they have certain characteristics that other living organisms do not have. A plant will usually be the color green due to chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is a pigment that almost always reflects green light. Some plants produce fruits and vegetables that are other colors. There are 300,000 species of plants that are known about. New discoveries about plants are not uncommon. Sometimes the discovery will be a new species of plant. Other times, a new use for certain plants may have been discovered, most medicinal.

•Plants have many purposes and are essential to the earth itself. In fact, they were one of the first organisms that evolved on earth. The entire structure of the atmosphere of the earth relies on the existence of plants. Plants preserve about 20% of all of the earth’s oxygen and are necessary to for survival. A plant functions by ingesting light, water and carbon monoxide. It then converts those three things into oxygen and carbohydrates. When people breathe, they take oxygen into their lungs. A person then exhales carbon monoxide.

•There are certain plants that only grow at certain times during a calendar year. They grow by the division of cells and require certain things in order to properly grow. For the most part, any plant needs water and light to grow. Plants also grow by picking up nutrients that are found in the soil that they grow in. Soil that is rich in nutrients will grow healthier plants. The process called photosynthesis is what a plant performs in order to live, although not every plant performs photosynthesis. Photosynthesis allows plants to produce sugars by taking in sunlight. It works by allowing plants to store the energy of the sunlight in chemical bonds. Respiration lets go of that energy.

•There are ten divisions of plants. Their scientific names are Anthophyta, Psilophyta, Lycophyta, Gnetophyta, Cycadophyta, Ginkgophyta, Pterophyta, Coniferophyta, Sphenophyta and Bryophyta. Each division refers to a different type of plant family, such as trees and bushes. Different plants are able to adapt to different environments and climates. That is what makes a cactus able to survive in a desert and a palm tree adapt to warmer and tropical climates. Because of the fact that there are so many different species of plants, scientists categorize them in ways that make them easier to study. Scientists spend a great deal of time studying plants, especially when they study genetics.

Plants are one of the most important and oldest living organisms that exist on the earth. The survival of mankind depends on plants to produce a good portion of the oxygen that people need to breathe. By ingesting carbon monoxide, they also help to clean the air, although there is too much carbon monoxide in the air for plants to ingest all of it.