Plants & Trees Facts for Kids
Fascinating facts about the plant world
The ancient Egyptians made one of the world's first forms of paper from the papyrus plant, which grew along the banks of the River Nile over 5,000 years ago.
Beans and peas are called legumes — the parts we eat are the seeds inside pods, and the plants can make their own fertiliser from nitrogen in the air.
Spider plants are popular houseplants because they can absorb harmful chemicals like formaldehyde from indoor air, helping to keep homes healthier.
Hummingbirds are important pollinators for red tubular flowers like salvia and fuchsia — they hover and drink nectar while brushing pollen onto their heads and beaks.
Stinging nettles, once cooked or dried, completely lose their sting and can be made into a nutritious tea or soup that is packed with iron and vitamins.
Giant redwood trees have very thick bark that is naturally fire-resistant, allowing them to survive wildfires that would kill most other trees.
Plants have tiny holes in their leaves called stomata — through these holes they breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out the oxygen that we need to survive.
The seeds in a sunflower head are arranged in two sets of spirals that follow a special number pattern called the Fibonacci sequence, which also appears in snail shells and hurricanes.
A giant puffball mushroom can grow to the size of a football and contains up to seven trillion spores — if each one grew into a puffball, the combined mass would be far larger than the Earth.
Orchid seeds are among the smallest seeds in the world — some are so tiny they float like dust and have virtually no food reserves, relying on fungi to feed them when they germinate.