Plants are the backbone of all life on Earth: they regulate our climate, purify our water, help

create rich soils and protect those soils from erosion. Plants, in their amazing diversity, are also an essential resource for human survival and well-being: they provide food, medicine, shelter, and clothing, and are a source of unending beauty. Can you imagine what the world would be with without plants?

Plants are the backbone of all life on Earth and an essential resource for human well-being. Just think about how your everyday life depends on plants
Everything we eat comes directly or indirectly from plants. Throughout human history, approximately 7,000 different plant species have been used as food by people. Plants regulate the water cycle: they help distribute and purify the planet's water. They also help move water from the soil to the atmosphere through a process called transpiration. One-quarter of all prescription drugs come directly from or are derivatives of plants. Additionally, four out of five people around the world today rely on plants for primary health care. Read more about why plant extinction threatens the discovery of new medicine here Air: Oxygen is brought to you by plants, as a byproduct of photosynthesis. Climate: Plants store carbon, and have helped keep much of the carbon dioxide produced from the burning of fossil fuels out of the atmosphere. Plant Conservation Day (May 18th) is a fantastic excuse to celebrate the importance of plants and learn more about the key role we all play in their conservation. Unfortunately, the plants that are vital to people and the planet are facing serious threats in your backyard and around the world. Click here to learn more about why plants need your help The worlds plant species are facing unprecedented threats to their continued survival, despite the fact that their loss will have significant negative impacts on the humans and wildlife that depend upon them and the ecosystems services they provide.

Arthashastra, the famous text on state policy written by Kautilya, classifies forests and stresses the importance of protecting certain types of forests. Kautilya systematised change in landuse from jungle to agricultural fields and orchards, says Ashraf. In the transformation of natural to 'cultivated' wilderness people could maintain optimal density of plantations, depending on the carrying capacity of the land, he explains. Perhaps this foresight explains why forests and wilderness in India remained intact for centuries despite wars, urbanisation and the spread of agriculture and commerce. n the Gupta period (300-600 AD) the great Sanskrit poet and playwright Kalidasa wrote Shakuntalam. The work has some of the most beautiful verse on human-nature interplay. Taking care of forests was apparently considered a virtue for the nobility, though hunting was permitted. In south India, the Sangam literature (100-400 AD) tells us that villages were surrounded by large forest tracts akin to the mahavanas of the north. Under dynasties such as the Cholas, Pandyas and Cheras, worship of trees was a common practice. Notes Chandran: "Despite much deforestation in the Deccan, substantial patches of forests remained until the systematic exploitation by the British in the early 19th century. Relics of sacred groves remain to this day, sheltering rare habitats and plant and animal species. Hunting and tree-felling were subject to communal regulations." For tribes all over India, forests were always associated with dieties. Even after they

were absorbed into the varna system as low castes or as casteless people, they continued worshipping sacred groves and deities.

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Plants play the most important part in the cycle of nature. Without plants, there could be no life on Earth. They are the primary producers that sustain all other life forms. This is so because plants are the only organisms that can make their own food. Animals, incapable of making their own food, depend directly or indirectly on plants for their supply of food. All animals and the foods they eat can be traced back to plants. The oxygen we breathe comes from plants. Through photosynthesis, plants take energy from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air, and water and minerals from the soil. They then give off water and oxygen. Animals and other nonproducers take part in this cycle through respiration. Respiration is the process where oxygen is used by organisms to release energy from food, and carbon dioxide is given off. The cycles of photosynthesis and respiration help maintain the earth's natural balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide, and water. Leaves are the main food-making part of most plants. They capture energy from sunlight, and turn water and carbon dioxide into sugar and starch. This sugar and starch becomes the food that provides plants with energy to grow, to produce flowers and seeds, and carry on their other life processes.

Medicine
Plants provide many useful drugs. Some of these plants have been used as medicines for hundreds of years. The bark of the cinchona tree was used 400 years ago to reduce fever. It is still used to make quinine, a drug used to treat malaria and other diseases. Another drug, called digitalis, is used in treating heart disease. It is made from the dried leaves of the purple foxglove plant. The roots of the Mexican yam are used in producing cortisone, a drug useful in treating arthritis and a number of other diseases.
One of the oldest known gardens are those of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, although it can be argued that Aristotle developed one of the first botanical gardens with the help of Alexander the Great one of Aristotles students and friends. Throughout Alexanders conquests he would send back plants from distant countries for Aristotle to study and document.

The final discovery was made near Gaya, on the banks of the Neranjara river, seated under a pipal (Ficus religiosa) tree that probably had been a humble cult spot and became a great centre of pilgrimage afterwards, with cuttings planted in distant places like Ceylon and perhaps China.
Plants are the only life forms on Earth which are capable of producing fixed carbon and oxygen from carbon dioxide and water using sunlight via the process of photosynthesis. Without plants herbivores would die, without herbivores carnivores and omnivores would die.
If there were no plants on earth we would all be dead because plants give oxygen. There would also be no life. **

Plants; probably the most ignored organism on this planet. People walk past plant and cut them down but nobody ever thinks about what they do for us, what the world would be if there was never any plants or photosynthetic organisms. If the world never had these organisms the world would be a desolate place. There would be no oxygen, atmosphere, or food. We inhale air unconsciously every day. By taking in air, we absorb oxygen and discharge carbon dioxide in the process of generating energy. It is a physiological phenomenon, called respiration. Most organisms on earth breathe. Then, how is oxygen generated and where does carbon dioxide go? The answer to this is plants. When we breath out carbon dioxide the photosynthetic organisms (plants) "breath" in the CO2 and give off our much needed air. In general if the plants never existed there would be no organism to convert the useless CO2 to oxygen, and without oxygen we and all other living organisms (excluding plants) would not be able to survive. Our atmosphere is made of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% argon, 0.03% carbon dioxide plus small amounts of water vapour. In the beginning of the earth there was no such thing as the atmosphere primitive plants absorbed the carbon in the air and transferred it to oxygen. This oxygen was the first of many layers of the atmosphere. The thin layer of oxygen aloud for water to condense and for lakes, rivers, and oceans. When this water evaporated it made a small adjustment to the

atmosphere it now protected the earth for harmful rays. Finally the nitrogen attached it self to the water and oxygen molecules creating the current day atmosphere the permits things to grow and live. Even though a lot of animals... Acid rain is a cancer on the face of North America and the World. In the United States, the main sulphuric acid sources are non-ferrous smelters and power generation. On both sides of the border, cars and trucks are the main sources for nitric acid (about 40% of the total), while power generating plants and industrial commercial and residential fuel combustion together make up the rest. In the air, the sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides can be transformed into sulphuric acid and nitric acid. These Acids can travel worldwide riding the different air currents like a pollution highway. When these acids fall to the earth they pollute and scar everything they make contact with including you (Got Milk). Some areas of the Earth are better suited for dealing with acid rain than others. This is because compounds found in the region like limestone, magnesium, or calcium which is alkaline (antacids). These alkaline compounds help to neutralize the polluted solution as they make contact with it. These alkaline solvents are also absorbed by all living things in that ecosystem. This absorption helps to make the plant or animal more resistant to the effect of battery acid falling out of the sky. However, large areas of the Western United States near Oklahoma, with quartzite or granite based geology and little top soil offer little buffering capacity to neutralize even small amounts of acid rain (the dust bowl).One would think that during a drought rain would be a welcomed event but in reality it is probably doing more damage than good. Therefore over time, the basic environment shifts from an alkaline to an acidic one. This is why many lakes and oceans around the world are in danger of loosing their fisheries. The average mean of pH rainfall in Lake Erie ranges between...
Every living organism, including green plants, needs food (carbohydrate, fat and protein) to live. However, animals (including humans) must consume other living organisms. They are therefore consumers (heterotrophic). Plants survive without needing to feed on other organisms and are therefore called producers (autotrophic). Plants make their food using carbon dioxide (CO2 ), and water (H2 O) to produce sugars and oxygen (O2 ), using energy from the sun. This process is called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is carried out in green leaves. The leaves contain a green substance called chlorophyll which collects energy from the sun. The word photosynthesis comes from the Greek meaning to put together with light. Photosynthesis is the most important biochemical process on earth because:

1. Photosynthesis is responsible for producing oxygen, without which humans and animals cannot survive. 2. Photosynthesis converts the suns energy into accessible energy that humans and animals consume as food. All animals depend directly (i.e. herbivores) or indirectly (i.e. carnivores) on this process

Imagine a world without colour - imagine a world without plants! Plants colour our window boxes, gardens and natural landscapes. They provide us with inspiration and pleasure. Much more than this they provide our food, medicines, timber and a whole host of natural resources. They provide the oxygen in the air that we breathe and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to regulate the global climate.

One generation plants the trees, and another gets the shade.