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Plants 
Let's learn about plants!
There are millions of types of plants on Earth. The first plants were the single celled plants called algae and diatoms that appeared around 3.5 million years ago. Botany is the study of plants. The first man who we can call a botanist was Theophrastus who lived in the fourth century b.c. Theophrastus divided all plants into groups such as trees, shrubs and herbs.
All of the green plants need sunlight to grow because they use the sun's energy to make their food. This is called photosynthesis which occurs mostly in the leaves using a substance named chlorophyll. Plants also need water for photosynthesis to occur.
Insects help plants because they carry pollen from one flower to another. This is called pollination. Pollination helps the plant to form seeds. Pollination is defined as the transfer of pollen from the male part of a flower (stamen) to the female part of a flower (the style and stigma). There are different methods of pollination. Some plants are self pollinators which means that the pollen of the anthers of a plant falls on the the stigma of the same plant.
Animal pollination is done by certain animals, like insects and birds which carry pollen that is stuck to their bodies.
Wind pollination is when the wind is responsible for carrying the pollen.
An annual plant is one that grows from seed. Annuals die after one year and don't return. A biennial plant also grows from seed but it dies and grows again every year.
Seeds are not the only way to grow a plant. There are also bulbs, corms and tubers.
A bulb is a complete or nearly complete miniature of a plant that is enclosed in fleshy leaves called scales and contains it's own reserved food.
Onions, daffodils and tulips are some types of bulbs. Corms can be confused with Bulbs but they are mostly stems.
A corm is a short thick solid food-storing underground stem.
A crocus is an example of a corm. A tuber is a swollen, fleshy underground stem of a plant
that stores food. A potato is a tuber.
A tree is usually defined as a woody plant with one erect stem (the trunk) reaching a height of at least 12 feet. Some trees have needles while others have leaves. Trees with needles belong to the group of plants called conifers, which means that they produce their seeds in cones. Nearly all conifers are evergreen, which means that they are never totally without leaves. The majority of broad-leaved tress are deciduous and shed their leaves before winter sets in. North America has the world's tallest tress, the most massive and the oldest trees.
Related Links
Plant Data Base - A very large plant data base.
You may search for entries in several ways: by name (common or botanical); by characteristics (height, hardiness, etc.) or browse the database by category.
Aquatic Plants
Index of Poisonous Plants Rain Forest Plants - In depth information and research on over 100 rainforest medicinal plants in Raintree's Tropical Plant Database.
Carnivorous Plants - Learn about
Carnivorous plants which are the name given to a wide ranging group of plants which only share a single common factor, that is that they all have a method of trapping and digesting living creatures in order to provide a means of nourishment.
What Tree is that? Tree Identification
Parts of a Seed
Parts of a Flower
Gardening with Children
Index of Plants by Botanical Name
Wildflowers in Bloom - A great resource for looking up wildflowers.
The pages contain pictures of the plants in their seedling stage, a map of the U. S. showing their distribution range, and other useful information regarding planting and growing the wildflowers.
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