Have you ever wished you could fly like a bird or run as fast as a cheetah?
Perhaps you'd like to change colors like a chameleon or glow in the dark like a jellyfish?
God has given all His creations, including humans, various abilities to thrive in their environments.
However, one creation was given perhaps the most amazing ability of all.
Its identity might surprise you. It covers every continent, is found in every ocean,
and plays a vital role in every ecosystem it inhabits. Can you guess what it is? It's not a
bird, cat, lizard, or fish. It's a plant! When you think of plants, many examples might come to mind:
grasses, trees, bushes, flowers, or vegetables. What do these very different things
all have in common? How can a cactus or a palm tree be similar to a lovely lily? All
plants share the same astonishing ability to create their own food.
Imagine never having to eat food when you are hungry,
but instead having cells in your body that could produce the food you need for energy.
How do plants accomplish such an amazing feat? Like a recipe, plants are able to take
several ingredients, combine them, and turn them into molecules that store energy. This process is
called photosynthesis. The first ingredient plants need in their quest to make food
is sunlight. Plants absorb sunlight using the chlorophyll in their cells. Chlorophyll also gives
plants their distinctive green coloring. Sunlight provides the energy needed for the process.
Water, the second ingredient, is brought in by the roots and split into hydrogen and oxygen.
The third ingredient is carbon dioxide, which the plants absorb from the air through tiny openings
in their leaves. This carbon dioxide collected in the leaves is combined with the hydrogen from
the roots to form the food the plants need in the form of glucose, which is a simple sugar. You may
be wondering about the oxygen that was split from the hydrogen but not used as an ingredient. This
oxygen is released back into the air. So not only do plants produce their own food,
but they also produce oxygen which is vital to the survival of all animals and humans. Because
they are autotrophic, meaning they create their own food, plants are called producers.
Plants not only produce oxygen and food, but also clothing, building materials, and medicines.
They are also the foundation for animal habitats, air quality, and soil stability.
Let's take a look at just three of the over 400,000 species of plants that shape our planet.
In the fall, acorns can be found on the ground across much of North America and Asia to the
delight of squirrels and other animals. An acorn is a seed and from this small seed, we'll grow a
mighty oak tree, one of the main sources of wood used in buildings, furniture, and even musical
instruments. Because oak trees are deciduous, meaning their leaves fall off every year,
their wood is considered hardwood. Have you ever walked on a hardwood floor?
Much of the wood used in hardwood floors comes from oak trees. A cut or felled tree is taken to
a lumber yard where it is cut into planks, smoothed, and sent to stores for purchase.
At a very different kind of store, you might see the product of this plant. Did you know you
can find plant products at a clothing store? If you are wearing a t-shirt right now, chances are
you are wearing part of the cotton plant. The fruit of this plant is not an apple or a pear,
but a fibrous white boll. A harvester plucks the bolls and leaves from the plants
creating giant rectangles of fluffy white cotton known as modules. These modules are taken to a
processing plant where the cotton is cleaned and the fibrous lint is removed from the seed in the
center of the boll. The cotton seeds will be used to make oil or even mayonnaise while the lint
is compacted, stretched into string, woven into cloth, and eventually made into clothing.
Over a quarter of medicines made today are derived from plants. They are used to treat
injuries, illnesses such as the cold, diseases such as diabetes, and even cancers. For example,
medicine derived from the bark of the cinchona tree found at the Andes mountains in South America
is used to treat malaria. This terrible disease is spread by mosquitoes infected
with the protist Plasmodium and has been the cause of millions of deaths in countries with
tropical climates. The cinchona tree's bark contains quinine which was the first
treatment for malaria. Later treatments were synthesized from this same compound.
Think of the plants that you use in your daily life. Many of the foods you eat including bread,
veggies, fruit, pasta, rice, sugar, and more come from plants. Even other foods such as milk,
cheese, and ice cream are only possible thanks to the plants that animals eat.
And plants give us so much more than food. The home you live in, the clothes you wear,
and the clean air you breathe are all brought to you by the power of plants.
And that's not even all of their benefits. Plant roots can prevent erosion. Flowers can
spread happiness. Green spaces such as parks have been shown to increase the emotional and physical
well-being of people living nearby. The list goes on and on. One thing is for sure: plants
shape our lives in multiple ways and our world would be a much different place without them.