Plants & Trees Facts for Kids
Fascinating facts about the plant world
The bladderwort is an aquatic carnivorous plant that sucks in tiny water creatures with a trapdoor that snaps shut in less than a millisecond — one of the fastest movements in the plant kingdom.
When a cork oak's bark is harvested, the tree absorbs three to five times more carbon dioxide as it regrows, making cork one of the most eco-friendly materials.
A large saguaro cactus can absorb and store up to 760 litres (200 gallons) of water during a rainstorm, enough to last it through months of drought.
The world's tallest known living tree is a coast redwood named Hyperion, standing at 115.9 metres (380 feet) tall in California.
The foxglove plant contains chemicals called digitalis glycosides, which doctors still use today to treat certain heart conditions.
A single teaspoon of healthy forest soil can contain more living organisms than there are people on Earth.
The baobab tree of Africa, called the 'tree of life,' can store thousands of litres of water inside its massive, swollen trunk.
Ferns don't produce seeds or flowers; instead they reproduce by releasing millions of tiny spores that drift on the wind to grow into new plants.
The castor bean plant produces ricin, one of the most toxic naturally occurring substances known — a single castor bean contains enough ricin to be dangerous.
Plants release oxygen during the day when they are photosynthesising, but at night they take in oxygen and release carbon dioxide, just like animals.