Plants dominate the Earth, coming in a wide variety of species and appearances, and while these organisms don’t seem as complex as animals or us, they’re actually incredibly complex living beings. Whether you’re in a biology class, are looking to take up gardening, or just have a general interest, allow us to tell you everything you should know about plants so that you can begin to better understand how they work.
Plants Have Organs
Like animals, plants also have organs. For example, flowers can be male, female, or even both depending on what reproductive organs they have. Female flowers have a pistil while the males have a stamen, and of course, as mentioned, some flowers have both. However, since they can’t move and mate, they use their vibrantly colored petals to attract pollinators like bees and butterflies so that their pollen gets stuck onto these insects so that they will be carried off and fertilize flowers with a pistil.
Fruit, which we typically consider food for ourselves, is meant to protect seeds until they are eaten. The fruit is digested, but the undigested seeds are “deposited” elsewhere by the animal that ate them and can sprout as new plants.
Plants Need Nourishment
Also, like animals, plants need nourishment. They need to breathe, drink, and eat like we do. With the use of chloroplasts inside a plant’s cells, they undergo the process of photosynthesis and use light to convert water and carbon dioxide into synthesized foods. Their roots, in the meantime, absorb water and nutrients from the dirt around them. This process is the most important thing you should know about plants because, without proper nourishment, the plants in your care will wither and die.
Plant Defense Mechanisms
The last thing we’ll cover in this article is how plants defend themselves from being devoured by herbivorous creatures, insects, and other organisms that would otherwise kill the plant. Some of these protective measures come in the form of barriers like bark – protecting trees from being damaged by factors in their environment. Plants like cacti or roses make use of thorns and spines to deter potential predators by being too painful to be worth the effort of eating. Lastly, some plants like peppers and spices evolved to be hot and unpleasant to anything that ate them – too bad humans decided to take it as a challenge and made them into a delicacy.