Plants & Trees Facts for Kids
Fascinating facts about the plant world
Halophytes are plants that thrive in very salty soils or water; they have special mechanisms to exclude, excrete, or compartmentalise salt so it doesn't damage their cells.
Plants transmit electrical signals along their vascular tissue in response to wounding or touch — these signals travel at speeds of up to 40 metres per hour and trigger defensive responses.
A single mature oak tree in Britain can support over 600 species of insects, far more than any other native tree, making oaks critically important for biodiversity.
Sugarcane is the world's largest crop by tonnage — more of it is grown each year than any other plant, with over 1.9 billion tonnes produced annually.
Rose of Jericho, the 'resurrection plant,' can lose virtually all its water and appear completely dead for years, then fully revive within hours of being placed in water.
English ivy clings to walls using aerial rootlets that secrete nanoparticles of adhesive, which bonds so strongly it can support loads far beyond the vine's own weight.
Some Arctic and alpine plants produce antifreeze proteins that bind to ice crystals and prevent them from growing large enough to puncture and destroy plant cells.
Peatlands cover only 3% of Earth's land but store more carbon than all the world's forests combined, making them vital in the fight against climate change.
Root tips detect the direction of gravity using tiny starch-filled organelles called statoliths that sink to the bottom of specialised cells, telling the root which way is down.
Cyanobacteria were the first organisms to perform oxygen-releasing photosynthesis, and they transformed Earth's atmosphere from oxygen-poor to oxygen-rich about 2.4 billion years ago.