Category: Plants And People

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs. Flowers may facilitate outcrossing (fusion of sperm and eggs from different individuals in a population) resulting from cross-pollination or allow selfing (fusion of sperm and…

Fermentation is another anaerobic (non-oxygen-requiring) pathway for breaking down glucose, one that’s performed by many types of organisms and cells. In fermentation, the only energy extraction pathway is glycolysis, with one or two extra reactions tacked on at the end. Fermentation and cellular respiration begin the same way, with glycolysis. In fermentation, however, the pyruvate made…

Some plant products such as alcohol (producedby fermentation of sugar), tobacco, and drugs like heroin from thepoppy, cocaine from coca and marijuana from the hemp plant haveoften been put to less than desirable uses by people. Many other drugsderived from plants are widely used in medicine. A good example isdigitalis from the foxglove plant, often…

Wood was once an important fuel, and still is in some partsof the world. All fossil fuels (coal, gas and petroleum) are the productof photosynthesis that took place several hundred million years ago.The problem with using fossil fuels today is that this releases carbonback into the atmosphere that has been stored as organic compoundsall this…

Before the development of syntheticproducts such as nylon, orlon, and plastics, people were dependentupon plants for fibers and building materials. Wood productswere, and still are, a major source of construction materials.Nearly all of the written and printed matter produced throughhistory has depended on the use of paper products derived from plantfibers or wood. Fibers from…

We obviously eat plants but the animals we may alsoeat rely on plants for their food. Plants also make our food tastebetter. What would our food taste like without spices such as pepper,garlic, nutmeg, mustard, cinnamon, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme,vanilla, cocoa, and many others, all of which are plant products?How many of us can do…

Have you thanked a green plant today? Plants are of enormousbenefit to humans. As a matter of fact people and all other animalsare totally dependent on plants for their existence.Plants are the only living organisms that are able to convert lightenergy into chemical energy. In the process of photosynthesis,carbon dioxide and water—in the presence of…