The Importance of Plants

Why are plants important?Harvesting the sun’s energyThe world’s lungsBiodiversityFoodPharmaceuticalsBuilding materialFlood & erosion controlRecreation and ecotourismIntrinsic value

Harvesting the sun’s energy

Plants = AutotrophsEvery food web starts with the

sun and primary producers

The world’s lungsThrough photosynthesis plants

take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen

Carbon dioxide + water + solar energy glucose + oxygen

BiodiversityWhat a tangled web we weave.Every organisms is dependent

on other organisms.◦Growing crops: we remove plants

from their natural habitats.◦Building roads and rail ways

removes plants◦Cutting down plants to use them for

our own purposes

• Decreasing biodiversity = less adaptable when the environment changes!

Food

Pharmaceuticals

Foxglove – digitalis = a drug used to treat heart disease

Periwinkle◦ vincristine = used to treat childhood

leukemia ◦vinblastine = used to treat Hodgkin’s

diseaseCannabis Plant – tetrahydrocannabionol

(THC) = used to increase appetite, reduce nausea and may reduce muscle spasms

Building materialWoodThatched roofs made from palm

treesWood for musical instruments

Flood & erosion controlRoot systems keep soil in

placeHurricane Katrina – wet

land loss and erosion a big factor◦~1950s -canals built through

the marsh for petroleum exploration and ship traffic. These new ditches sliced the wetlands into a giant jigsaw puzzle, increasing erosion and allowing lethal doses of salt water to infiltrate freshwater marshes

Recreation and ecotourism

BIG BusinessCanola crop worth $2.5 billionWheat crop worth $1.8 billionCorn crop worth $753 million

Intrinsic valueIt is the ethical or

philosophic value that an object has "in itself" or "for its own sake", as an intrinsic property.

An object with intrinsic value may be regarded as an end or end-in-itself.

Some cool plantsPitcher plants – carnivorous

Some cool plantsVenus Flytrap - carnivorous

Some cool plantsRafflesia arnoldii

◦3 meter wide flower◦strong odour of decaying flesh –

“corpse flower”

Some cool plantsStinking Titan Arum

Some cool plantsRomanesco Broccoli

Some cool plantsThe boabab tree

Growing new limbs!Meristemic tissue ~ stem cells

◦Located in specific regions to regenerate new parts

Biofuelsa wide range of fuels which are in

some way derived from biomass1.8% of the world's transport fuel

in 2008Debate over lack of soil to grow

food crops & potential increase in the cost of food