Download Importance of Plants

Importance of Plants
Plants and People
• Produce virtually all our food
• Provide medicine
• Influences Earth’s cycles
– water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and mineral
nutrients
Botany
• Study of plants
• More than 350,000 plant species
• Fewer than 20 plant species provide our food
Cultivation
• Approx. 11,000 yrs ago in Middle East
• Wheat, barley, lentil, and peas
– 1st domesticated
• Agriculture
• Cultivar (Cultivated and variety)
– Specific characteristic selected by humans
Food Crops
• Classified partly by use and family
• Cereals
– Rice, wheat, corn, oats, sorghum, rye, and millet
– 50% of worldwide calories
Food Crops
• Root crops
– Roots or underground stems
– Rich in carbohydrates
– Beets, radishes, carrots, rutabagas, turnips,
potatoes, and yams
Food Crops
• Legumes
– Peas, beans, soybeans
– Bear seeds in pods
– Improve nitrogen content in soil
– Symbiotic relationship with bacteria
• Rhizobium
Food Crops
• Fruits, Vegetables, and Nuts
• Spices, Herbs, and Favorings
Food Production
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Mass production of crops
Fertilizers
Pesticides
Consequences
– Soil erosion
– Depletion of fossil fuel and water supplies
– Pollution and destruction of habitat
Nonfood Uses
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Medicines
Clothing and Fabric Dyes
Fuels
Other Uses
– Ornamental
– Tourist attraction
– Energy conservation
Plants and the Environment
• Plant ecology
• Producers make food for consumers
– Photosynthesis
• Organic compounds
– Inorganic nutrients
– Maintenance of soil
Interactions
• Plant and animal
– Pollination
– Seed dispersal
• Plant and microbe
• Plant and humans
– Food, shelter, medicine, etc
– Weeds
• Harmful plants
Critical Thinking
• Discuss how the artificial selection by humans
play a role in the origin of agricultural crops?
How is artificial selection similar to natural
selection?
• Explain why plant materials entering the country
are screened by government inspectors
• If all animals disappeared from the Earth, what
would the positive and negative effects be on
plants?