Plants are a group of living organisms that are typically characterized by their green colour. A plant includes common groups such as trees, herbs flowers and ferns and algae. There are some 300,000 different species. The word plant is derived from the Latin “planta”, which means sprout, seedling. The ultimate source of energy and organic material in all habitats is a near result of photosynthesis and carbon fixation conducted by land plants and algae. Plants produce complex kinds of anti-oxidants that have been shown to reduce the occurrence of cancer. Plants were one of the first organisms to have evolved on Earth. In a sense they were the first polluter by poisoning the atmosphere with oxygen. Plants typically require a range of different factors to grow. Most obviously these are light and water. Plants also need to trace the elements and nutrients sometimes called fertilizers, often derived from the soil dissolved in water. Plants are green in colour due to a pigment called chlorophyll, its long molecule that tends to reflect mostly green light. |