Plants & Trees Facts for Kids
Fascinating facts about the plant world
During photosynthesis, plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and use the energy in sunlight to convert it into glucose sugar.
Pando, a grove of quaking aspen trees in Utah, is considered the world's largest organism by mass — all 47,000 trees share one giant root system.
The sundew plant is a carnivorous plant that catches insects on sticky gland-tipped hairs; once trapped, the leaf slowly curls around its prey to digest it.
Mangrove trees grow in salty coastal water and have special glands that filter out most of the salt before it enters the plant.
When a plant is being eaten by caterpillars, it can release chemicals into the air that warn nearby plants to start producing defensive toxins.
The bark of a cork oak tree can be carefully stripped away every nine years without harming the tree, and it naturally regrows.
Natural vanilla flavouring comes from the seed pods of a tropical orchid vine, and producing it is extremely labour-intensive.
Natural rubber comes from a milky sap called latex that oozes out of cuts made in the bark of rubber trees grown in tropical forests.
The coco de mer palm of the Seychelles produces seeds that can weigh up to 25 kg, making them the heaviest seeds in the plant kingdom.
Tree roots are powerful enough to crack concrete pavements and even move large rocks as they slowly grow and expand over time.