INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT PLANTS:


  1. The biggest plants of all are giant sequoia trees, found only in California. Sequoias are the largest living things on earth. Some sequoias stand more than 290 feet (88 meters) tall and measure more than 30 feet (9 meters) in diameter.
  2. The smallest plants include diatoms, one-celled structures that can only be seen with a microscope. A single drop of water may contain as many as 500 diatoms.
  3. The oldest plants on earth are bristlestone pine tress. One bristlestone pine in California is the oldest living thing. It began growing 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
  4. The smallest flower is the blossom of the duckweed plant. It can barely be seen with the naked eye.
  5. The largest flower is the giant rafflesia, which grows in Indonesia. It measures up to 3 feet (91 centimeters) in diameter and can weigh 15 pounds (7 kilograms).
  6. The largest leaves grow on raffia palm trees. They reach up to fifty feet (15 meters) long and 8 feet (2.4 meters) wide.
  7. Seed sizes vary greatly. A tobacco plant produces more than 2,500 seeds in a pod less than three-fourth of an inch (19 millimeters) long. On the other hand, the seed of a certain kind of coconut tree may weigh more than twenty pounds (9 kilograms). 
  8. The first plants appeared on earth about three billion years ago. No one knows exactly what they looked like, but they were probably simple plants similar to algae.
  9. Plant medicines. Quinine, made from the bark of the cinchona tree, is used to treat malaria and other diseases. Digitalis, used in treating heart diseases, comes from the dried leaves of the foxglove plant. Mold is the source of penicillin, a drug used to cure many illnesses. Cortisone, used to treat arthritis and many other diseases, comes from the roots of the Mexican yam plant.
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