Category Nature Science & Wildlife

Flowering plants are known as angiosperms. Although there are plenty of plants that do not have flowers, such as mosses, ferns, algae and conifers, the majority of plants on Earth are flowering ones. That does not mean that they are what we generally think of as flowers — colourful blooms that can be presented in bouquets. Most trees and grasses, for example, are flowering plants, but their flowers may be so small that they usually go unnoticed.

No. Although most of the world’s plants are flowering plants called angiosperms (from the Greek words for “vessel” and “seed”), there are hundreds of plants that do not make flowers. Seed plants that do not have flowers such as cycads, ginkgo, and conifers are called gymnosperms. Conifers, for example, are common gymnosperms; instead of flowers, conifers have cones that produce pollen or eggs. Well-known examples are cedars, cypresses, Douglas firs, junipers, pines, redwoods, and spruces. Male cones are small and soft, and female cones are large and hard. Wind carries pollen from the male cone to the female cone. As the eggs are pollinated and seeds develop, the scales of the cone open up to release the seeds. Once the seeds take root, a new plant grows. Other plants that do not have flowers are mosses; although they sometimes look like they are blooming, the flower-like part is a little capsule full of spores at the end of a small stem.

Flowers are the reproductive parts of a plant. Usually, one flower has both male and female parts. The male parts are the stamens, which consist of filaments and anthers. Filaments are like little stalks that support the anthers. Anthers produce tiny dust-like grains called pollen. The female part of a flower is called the carpel. This consists of an ovary, ovules, a style and a stigma. The ovary is hidden in a bulb-shaped receptacle at the base of the flower. Inside the ovary are one or more ovules, which become seeds if the flower is fertilized. Rising from the ovary is a small, sticky stem called the style, the tip of which is the stigma. In order for a flower to be fertilized, pollen must be transferred from the male stamen to the female stigma.

Flowers do much more than just provide beauty and lovely scents. Their primary purpose is reproduction. During the reproductive process, flowers make use of their colorful petals to attract pollinators such as insects and animals. These creatures are also lured by the nectar that flowers produce in their nectarines, glands that are often found at the base of their petals. By producing nectar, flowers are able to provide food for the insects that help to pollinate the plants. After a flower is pollinated, its fertilized ovule develops into a seed that can create a new plant; and the ovary that formed the ovule becomes a fruit. The process of plant reproduction, then, also generates food for people and animals to eat.

In addition to reproduction, flowers also serve important roles in gardens in particular. Some flowers possess an unparalleled ability to attract insects that are beneficial for the fertilization of other garden plants. On the other hand, certain other flowers can repel unwanted insects that are harmful to garden vegetables and fruits. Employing flowers as “garden guardians” can allow gardeners to decrease the amount of pesticides they use on their crops, which in turn leads to an increased number of beneficial insects in the garden. For instance, lavender is great for repelling fleas, moths, and whiteflies. Japanese beetles, those garden pests, can be attracted and killed by Four O’clock flowers planted near vegetable gardens (though these plants are poisonous to animals and humans). Furthermore, the act of planting flowers in itself is beneficial to humans, allowing the planter to burn calories and increase elasticity in certain muscles.

About 9000 years ago, human beings invented farming. Since then, they have carefully selected the crops that give the best harvests under different conditions. Particularly in the last two hundred years, selective plant breeding has developed the characteristics that farmers and consumers require. Now that machines are used to pick most crops, and large stores prefer to package fruits and vegetables in regular sizes, many commercial varieties have been bred to produce even fruits that ripen together.

For most of history, humans have been hunter-gatherers. Adopting a more nomadic lifestyle, we moved with the changing seasons, with livestock migration patterns and adapted as climate change impacted crops and the surrounding environment. Today, we embrace technologies that our ancestors likely could never have dreamed of, but the incorporation of modern capabilities into agricultural practices took time and didn’t entirely abandon early advancements. In other words: our ability to grow and sustain life on a billboard didn’t come to us overnight.

The first true shift in agriculture came nearly 12,000 years ago at the start of the Neolithic Revolution (a.k.a. the Agricultural Revolution), which marked the first instances of a more permanent, settled lifestyle. Humans found a practical, long-term solution for food in the Fertile Crescent, an area located across what is now the Middle East, with ready access to major bodies of water such as the Mediterranean Sea. Humans began cultivating plants, domesticating such crops as wheat, barley, peas, and flax, and livestock, breeding domestic pigs from wild boars, goats from Persian ibex, and the sheep and cows commonly found on today’s farms.

For centuries, very little changed — a settled life with access to high-quality land and domesticated animals didn’t lend itself to transition. Then came the Middle Ages, a period marked by selective cross-breeding of plants and animals for optimal quality and a technique known as ridge and furrow farming, a plowing technique employing oxen (and later, horses) that inspired similar methods used today.

The development of crop rotation, or the growing and harvesting of different crops on the same land during different seasons, in the 16th century drove the modernization of farming practices, but it was the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century that really took humans from the past into the present. With crops that required fewer workers, better soil replenishment and improved livestock care, more people could work in urban industries as a result of agricultural productivity.

The 20th century introduced widespread use of machinery, fertilizer and pesticide technology, which coincided with huge population growth. As a result, food largely became an affordable and accessible commodity in developed countries.

Today, we find ourselves at yet another turning point in which we must balance sustainability and increased food production for the 9.6 billion people expected in the world by 2050. At Bayer, we strive to continually advance attach innovation to help tackle agricultural challenges such as these. Through digital farming, we’re leveraging improved data collection methods and GPS systems, and other innovative technologies like airborne photosynthesis sensors to drought resistant seeds.

Some plants do gain extra minerals and other nutrients by trapping and “eating” insects. They are usually found in areas where there are not enough nutrients in the soil for healthy growth.

Would you believe that there are some plants that eat insects and even small animals from time to time? It’s true! We call these exotic things carnivorous plants. Although most carnivorous plants eat small insects, larger carnivorous plants in tropical areas have been known to capture rats, birds, and frogs.

One carnivorous plant that many students are familiar with is the Venus flytrap. Its unique “jaws” can be triggered by flies and other small insects. Once its jaws close on its prey, the Venus flytrap secretes enzymes that break down the insect into a goo that can be absorbed for its nutrients.

There are several other examples of carnivorous plants. The pitcher plant, for example, has leaves like champagne flutes, which can capture insects. Sundews, on the other hand, trap their victims with sticky tentacles. Bladderworts grow in ponds and streams, where they suck in their prey like underwater vacuum cleaners.

Carnivorous plants tend to grow in areas where the soil is very thin and lacks necessary nutrients. To survive, these plants must find other sources for the nutrients they need. Trapping and digesting insects allows these unique plants to survive. Unfortunately, human and environmental factors continue to threaten the limited environments where you can find wild carnivorous plants.

For many people, the thought of a plant eating an animal seems very strange. In fact, more than one person has turned the idea into a scary story or movie. Don’t worry, though, carnivorous plants don’t pose any danger to humans. Unless you’re the size of a tiny insect, you don’t have to worry about falling prey to a Venus flytrap or a pitcher plant.

There are two main ways in which plants reproduce. In sexual reproduction, pollen is transferred by insects or the wind from one part of a flower to another, in such a way that fertilization can take place. Seeds are then formed. These seeds in turn are distributed in different ways to a spot where they can germinate and grow. In asexual reproduction, a plant can reproduce without fertilization taking place. It may, for example, reproduce by sending out runners from its roots or by growing new plants on the tips of its leaves or branches. Plants reproduce sexually through the fusion of male and female gametes in the flower. Asexual reproduction is through stems, roots and leaves.

Plant reproduction comes in two types: sexual and asexual. Sexual reproduction is similar to human reproduction, which involves the fusion of the male (pollen) and female (ovule) gametes to form a new organism that inherits the genes of both the parents. The sexually reproductive part of a plant is the flower. Asexual reproduction, on the other hand, involves vegetative reproduction through stems, roots and leaves. Essentially, the parent plant regenerates itself by using one of its parts (roots, stems or leaves).

Both sexual and asexual methods of reproduction have their own set of advantages. In sexual reproduction, the new plant formed is a combination of genes, giving it an advantage in new ways concerning adaptation in changing environments. It can also avoid the transmission of certain diseases, due to some genes being dominant and others being recessive. Asexual reproduction is faster and perhaps the only manner of reproduction in species that do not bear flowers. Since asexual reproduction is basically the cloning of the parent plant, farmers can ensure that there is no genetic abnormality by selecting a healthy plant for reproduction.

The flower consists of four whorls or parts (calyx, corolla, androecium and gynoecium). The first whorl is the calyx, which contains the green sepals. The second whorl is the corolla, which contains the petals. The petals are brightly colored to attract the agents of pollination (bees and other insects) that aid in reproduction. The petals also protect the inner two whorls, which are directly involved in reproduction. The third whorl is the Androecium—the male reproductive part of the plant. The innermost whorl is the gynoecium—the female reproductive part of a plant.

The androecium contains a bundle of stamens that consist of a tube called a filament and the swollen end called the anther. The anther contains the pollen grains. Once matured, the pollen grains burst out in order to reach the female reproductive part of the flower.

The gynoecium contains the pistil, which is composed of the tube (style) that reaches the ovary. The swollen tip of the style is the stigma, which receives the pollen grains. The ovary contains the ovules, which turn into the seeds.

If there were no Plants, there could not be animal life on Earth. All animals either eat plants or eat other animals that in turn eat plants themselves. In this way, every living thing on Earth indirectly gets its energy from the Sun, although only plants can convert the Sun’s light into a usable form.

Why plants are valuable and important. Every day, we encounter plants whether it is in parks, the wild outbacks of nature, or in the simple pleasure of plants aping the inside and outside of our homes. But do we truly understand the vital role plants have in this world? The very thought should cause us to pay more attention to the beautiful botany that surrounds us.

FOOD: The sun is provider of all energy. We eat plants to gather the energy stored in their cells. And we are here because our ancestors foraged plants for food. They learned the ways of agriculture to make it easier and grew plants that produced products such as wheat and corn to eat. Approximately 7,000 different plant species have been cultivated and used as food for people. Though humans can live on the consumption of animal products, it is just a step away from plants since cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, rabbits and other animals eat plants to live.

AIR: The air we breathe mainly consists of 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. But it is oxygen that is vital for our cells to produce energy, energy that originated with the sun. When the sun shines down, plants absorb the sunlight to produce energy and end up releasing oxygen into the air as a by-product of their metabolism.  We in turn inhale the oxygen for our survival and exhale the carbon dioxides plants require. Breathe deeply and drink in the oxygen-laden air and realize it’s because of plants we are alive.

WATER: Where there is water, there is life. Plants regulate the water cycle by distributing and purifying the planet’s water supply. Through the act of transpiration, plants move the water from the soil up their roots and out into the atmosphere. Moisture accumulates into clouds and eventually the water droplets are returned back down as rain to revitalize life on earth.

MEDICINE: Many of prescription medicines come from plant extracts or synthesized plant compounds. Aspirin comes from the bark of the willow. Mint leaves have menthe that is used in throat lozenges, muscle creams and nasal medicine. The malaria drug ingredient quinine is from the bark of the Cinchona tree. About 65% – 80% of the world’s population use holistic plant-based medicine as their primary form of healthcare according to the World Health Organization.

HABITAT and CLOTHING: Plants make up the backbone of earth’s diverse landscape that provides hundreds of unique habitats necessary for life. Flowers dance in the fields while grasses on a hill sway in the wind. Trees strut tall in their habitat and act as the earth’s dynamic lungs, powering life everywhere. Birds pick up straw, leaves, bark, along with feathers, hairs and other items to make a comfy nest in a tree, bush or even tall grasses. Our ancestors used thatched roofs made of grasses or palm fronds, and wood to secure their homes. Industrial hemp was one of the first plants to be spun into usable fiber 10,000 years ago. Plants in all their diversity keep the cycle of life moving.

CLIMATE: Excessive carbon released into the environment has been blamed for the current climate change we are experiencing. But rarely is it explained that plants store carbon by pulling it from the air. Plants help keep much of the carbon dioxide produced from our burning of fossils fuels out of the atmosphere. We owe our temperate climate to the perpetual landscape of green that blankets our world.