We couldn’t even breathe without the fresh air plants make! And plants do so much else for us, too. They give us vegetables, fruits, cereals, and most of the other foods we eat. Plants also provide us with wood for building houses and making furniture.
People make cloth – such as cotton and linen for clothes, towels, and sheets – from plants. We get paper, rubber, string, and medicines from plants, too.
Plants also give us pleasure. They are nice to look at, touch, and smell.
- Plants supply food to nearly all terrestrial organisms, including humans. We eat either plants or other organisms that eat plants.
- Plants maintain the atmosphere. They produce oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. Oxygen is essential for cellular respiration for all aerobic organisms. It also maintains the ozone layer that helps protect Earth’s life from damaging UV radiation. Removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere reduces the greenhouse effect and global warming.
- Plants recycle matter in biogeochemical cycles. For example, through transpiration, plants move enormous amounts of water from the soil to the atmosphere. Plants such as peas host bacteria that fix nitrogen. This makes nitrogen available to all plants, which pass it on to consumers.
- Plants provide many products for human use, such as firewood, timber, fibers, medicines, dyes, pesticides, oils, and rubber.
- Plants create habitats for many organisms. A single tree may provide food and shelter to many species of insects, worms, small mammals, birds, and reptiles.
Picture Credit : Google
