Plants and us

Plants are our food, they improve our air and they are used to make many things that we need such as medicines, clothes and paper. Trees are cut down and the timber used to build houses and furniture. Plants are useful to us in many ways. We need oxygen in the air we breathe. Plants take in the carbon dioxide gas that we breathe out and turn it into oxygen. Plants keep the air we breathe stocked full of oxygen. Plants are food for us. They give the us the vitamins and minerals we need to grow and stay healthy. We eat the roots of plants such as carrots and potatoes. Potatoes can be baked, boiled and fried. Potatoes are used to make potato chips. We eat the fruits of many plants.

Apples, are

bananas and

grapes

all fruits of plants. We eat the seeds of plants. Rice, wheat and corn are the seeds of plants. We turn these grains into breakfast cereal. The grain is crushed into flour and the flour is used to make pasta, bread, and cakes.
These farmers in Vietnam are planting rice in flooded fields called paddies.

Many of our drinks are made from plants. Fruits are crushed and squeezed to make drinks and cordials. Tea and coffee come from plants.
Chocolate is made from the seeds of the cacao plant. It can be made into a hot chocolate drink.

Herbs and spices add flavour to our foods. Herbs are the leaves of plants and spices are made form the roots and bark of plants. Plants are used to make medicines. Plants are eaten by the animals we keep for food.
Cows eat grass and turn it into milk to feed to their calves. People milk the cows and drink the milk too.

Trees are plants. Trees are cut down and the timber used to make paper and to build furniture and houses.

Plants such as cotton are made into fabric and the fabric is used to make our clothes. Silkworms eat the leaves of the mulberry tree. Their silk cocoons are unwound and the threads are woven into cloth to make clothes and parachutes.
Go here to find out about how silk is made

Plants make gardens and parks. Places where we can enjoy ourselves. Can you think of other ways that we use plants?

Plants we can eat: an alphabet

You can use this alphabet as a reference to make your own plants alphabet book. You may like to make one that is just vegetables or just fruits. Collect pictures or draw your own to decorate your pages.
Thanks to Vy who sent in yellow watermelon Thanks to Carmen Tran for sending us artichoke, coriander, durian, pea and blackberry. (December 2003) Thuy Tran sent these in June 2004: Honeydew , iceberg lettuce Ita Palm, rockmelon, jujube, star fruit, voavanga. xigua Thanks to Year 1G, 1P, 1M and 1W and Mrs Cartwright for sending a terrific list which we have printed in pink (March 2004) Thanks to Lois Ryan who sent us a list of new names in June 2004. We've added them in blue. Thanks to Rhonda Chapman - Grade 2 teacher at Liddiard Road Primary School in Traralgon, Victoria, who sent the plants in this colour. Thanks to Brian Davis from Nashville, TN in the USA who sent us plants in this colour . Thanks to Joanne Lazarus and the 4th grade at Newmarket Elementary, NH. We've added Ita Palm. A palm tree found in Suriname that produces a fruit the pulp of which is eaten.

Thanks to Ash-leigh who sent information (May 2007) about quandongs, which she says are "yummy cherry-like fruit grown in outback Australia". They are in a group of food Australians call 'bush tucker', wild foods that Aboriginal Australians have eaten for thousands of years.

Make an alphabet of trees and flowers. Do some research to find out about any of the words in the list that you don't know. What do they look like? How do we use them?

C A
almond, apple, apricot, asparagus avocado, artichoke,alfalfa

cabbage, car chilli, corn banana, basil, cinnamon, bean, beetroot, broccoli, currant,corian blackberry, choko, caulifl blueberry, brussels cumquats, sproutsbeansprouts, cucumber, ch bamboo shoots, curry blackcurrant,boysenberry plant,coconu courgette, co bean,capsicu chard, custar cantaloupe,

D
date, dill, dandelion durian

E
eggplant, elder, endive

F
fennel, fig, French bean

hazel nut, horseradish garlic, ginger, grape, honeydew (melon), grapefruit,guava, gooseberry hickory nut

I
Slick)

Indian corn (maize)(sugges

iceberg lettuc Ita palm

jackfruit, jam melon, juniper berry, jujube (a plumkale, kiwifruit,kohlrabi like fruit) jalapeno,Jerusalem artichoke

leek, lemon, lychee, lettuc

mace, mandarin, mango, nectarine, oats, olive, onion, mint, nori, nut, orange, oregano,okr mushroom,marrow, musta nutmeg,n a rd seed ashi pear

radish, raspberry, rice, parsley, passionfruit, quandong rosemary,rhubarb, pea, peanut, pineapple, rocket,rambutan,rock potato, parsnip,pepper,po melon, rocket megranate,pear, radicchio, rutabaga papaya, persimmon (a type of turnip) plum, pumpkin, pecan
peaches

Q
quince

strawberries

sage, seaweed, spinach, ugli fruit tarragon, sultanas, swede, star fruit,silverbeet sugar cane tea, tomato, turnip, tan gerine

ST taro,

V
vanilla, violet, voavanga

walnut, ximenia fruit, watercress, xigua wheat,watermelon

Y
yam yellow watermelon

Z
zucchini

Potatoes
Potatoes are a plant. The part we eat grows under the ground.

They grow on the roots of the plant. New plants grow from tiny buds on a potato. Potatoes can be cooked in many different ways.
The potato plant is a native of South America. Spanish explorers took the plants back to Europe 400 years ago. The British brought potatoes to Australia when they started their colony here in 1788.

The part of the potato plant that we eat grows underground on the plant's roots. Above ground there are leaves, flowers, and fruit which we do not eat, and which are in fact poisonous. Potatoes are tubers that grow on the end of the roots. Potatoes have small buds, called 'eyes', and from each of these a new plant can grow, not from the fruit of the plant.

Potato farmers plant potato 'eyes' in ploughed and fertilised paddocks. After about 100 days, 15 or 20 potatoes have grown on each plant. When the above-ground plants die, the potatoes are dug out using a machine called a potato harvester, which lifts the potatoes out of the soil. Then the potatoes are sorted and packed into sacks and boxes. Potatoes are the fourth largest crop in the world. Potatoes can be cooked in many different ways and can also be frozen and dried. Potatoes are a good food, as they contain protein, calcium, vitamin C and niacin.

Go here to see some of the ways potatoes can be cooked http://www.hugs.org/taterdex.shtml Go here to read about potato chips http://www.howstuffworks.com/question579.htm

More about plants

What do plants need in order to grow? To grow, plants need water, sunshine for warmth and light, and minerals. The minerals come from the soil and are dissolved in the water and taken up by the plant's roots. Soil containing dead and rotting plant and animal material is the best soil for plants. Worms and other burrowing animals carry mix this material into the soil. Plants also need the gases carbon dioxide and oxygen which come from the air around them. Plants use carbon dioxide, water and sun's energy to make its food. This process is called photosynthesis. As it makes its food the plant produces oxygen. It needs some oxygen but not a lot. The oxygen the plant does not need, leaves the plant through its leaves and goes into the air we breathe. What are the roots and the stem? Roots hold the plant in the soil. Roots carry water to the plant's stem. There are 2 main kinds of roots. Fibrous roots are thin roots that spread out through the soil like underground

branches.
The roots of this tree have spread out above the ground

Tap roots are large thick roots with finer,hairy roots coming off them. Tap rootsstore food made in the leaves. It travels down the stem and into the root.

Carrots and parsnips are tap roots. People eat many kinds of tap roots.

Roots grow towards water. Stems grow towards light. What are the leaves? Leaves come in many shapes and sizes. Leaves have veins running through them. The veins carry the water and minerals from the roots and stem through the leaves. Veins also carry food made by the leaves to the rest of the plant. Green plants have a chemical called chlorophyll in their leaves. This chemical lets the plant use the sun's energy, water and carbon dioxide to make food in the process known as photosynthesis. It is the chlorophyll which makes the leaves green.

Leaves also breathe for the plant. They take in carbon dioxide from the air and give out oxygen.
Leaves are food for animals