Last Updated on September 2, 2024
Picture a life without plants!
Most of continental earth would exist as one vast dry landscape. The atmosphere would be dangerously high in carbon dioxide (CO2) and low in oxygen (02). And the beautiful arboreal animals we’ve grown to love would have long gone extinct.
Indeed, life without plants is simply unfathomable. Plants play such a central role in our ecosystems that we cannot wish them away.
Unfortunately, plants rarely get the attention and credit they deserve. And surprisingly so from the very organisms that depend on them the most – humans.
In this article, we dig deep and unearth the 70 most interesting facts and information about plants.
Origin and Evolution
1. Plants have been around for over 500 million years. According to archaeologists, land plants first appeared during the development of multicellular animals in the Cambrian Period.
2. Fungi are more than 500 million years older than plants. Findings indicate that these organisms may have appeared some 1 billion years ago.
3. Since fungi predate land plants, scientists believe that the earth was once covered in giant mushrooms up to 24 feet tall and 3 feet wide. Mother Earth was largely inhabitable for animal organisms during this period.
4. Land plants are believed to have evolved from a group of green algae. The algae themselves are thought to have been in existence from as early as 1 billion years ago.
5. Although land plants evolved from green algae, the oldest type of algae to evolve were the red varieties. The oldest fossils point to red algae evolution around 1.6 billion years ago.
6. The first land plants were the non-vascular types. These include liverworts and mosses. Besides lacking elaborate vascular systems, these plants also have shallow roots.
7. The plant-seed dilemma isn’t as complex as the chicken-egg one. Archaeological findings have revealed that seed-bearing plants emerged millions of years after plants were already in existence. Which means that seeds came from plants and not the other way around.
8. However, all fruits came from flowers. So, the situation hasn’t changed much in this regard.
9. Judean date palm seed holds the record for the oldest seed known to have grown into a viable plant. The seed, about 2,000 years old, was recovered from excavations at the palace of Herod the Great on Masada in Israel.
10. The Chinese are believed to have been the first humans to grow and domesticate trees.
11. Ferns, beeches, cycads, and gingkoes were the most dominant plants during the dinosaur period (between 275 and 65 million years ago).
12. The first grass emerged around 55 million years ago. That was about ten million years after dinosaurs went extinct and several hundreds of millions of years after the emergence of the first land plant.
Taxonomic Classification
13. Plants belong in the kingdom Plantae. This taxonomic unit consists of all living things that are not animals, fungi, prokaryotes, and some algae.
14. Organisms that identify as plants must possess multicellularity, cellulose-containing cell walls, and the ability to carry out photosynthesis.
15. The Plantae kingdom contains 14 phyla. The most diverse is the phylum Angiospermae, which consists of over 260,000 living plant species.
16. There’s no conclusive answer on the actual number of plant species. However, some studies point to an excess of 400,000 exact species.
17. Over 600 distinct plant species have gone extinct in the past 250 years alone.
Demystifying Common Plant Confusions
18. Plants vs. Trees – Plants refer to all organisms in the kingdom Plantae, including grass, shrubs, and trees. However, the word “plant” may also be applied contextually to denote plants that are much smaller than trees. Plants also tend to have multiple stems that are fragile and bendable, while trees typically produce a single stem called trunk that’s difficult to bend. Another differentiator between plants and trees is that plants usually have more leaves and branches on their lower stems compared to trees.
19. Plants vs. Shrubs – Shrubs, also known as bushes, are small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plants. They differ from regular plants in that their woody stems grow a considerable distance from the ground.
20. Green vs. Non-green Plants – Green plants have a substance called chlorophyll which accounts for their green pigmentation. Non-green plants do not have chlorophyll.
21. Flowering vs. Non-flowering Plants – Flowering plants produce flowers and reproduce using seeds. Non-flowering plants do not produce flowers but use seeds or spores to reproduce. Examples of non-flowering plants are conifers, ferns, and mosses.
22. Plants vs. Flowers – While most plants produce flowers, the term “flower” usually denotes smaller ornamental plants mainly beloved for their flowers. Roses, daisies, tulips, and lilies are notable examples of plants that identify primarily as flowers.
23. Autoflowering vs. Photoperiod Plants – Autoflowering plants transition automatically from their vegetative growth phase to the flowering stage. On the other hand, photoperiod plants depend on changes in light intensity and duration to transition from their vegetative growth to the flowering phase. Without significant light fluctuations, photoperiod plants will remain in their vegetative growth phase.
24. Sexual vs. Asexual Plants – Sexual plants reproduce via the fusion of male gametes (pollen grains) with female gametes (stigmas). On the other hand, asexual plants reproduce without the fusion of male and female gametes.
25. Male vs. Female Plants – Male plants produce pollen while female plants produce flowers. Male plants cannot grow fruit. Similarly, their female counterparts cannot make pollen grains.
26. Feminized vs. Regular Plants – Feminized plants are specially bred to eliminate male chromosomes. While regular plants have a 50-50 chance of producing male or female chromosomes, feminized seeds can produce up to 90% female and only 10% male chromosomes.
27. Herbaceous vs. Woody Plants – Herbaceous plants are characterized by stems that die back to the ground annually while woody plants produce hard and tall stems that do not die back to the ground.
28. Deciduous vs. Evergreen Plants – Deciduous plants shed their leaves at certain periods in the year, particularly during summer or dry seasons. On the other hand, evergreen plants maintain their leaves all-year-round.
29. Annual vs. Perennial Plants – Annual plants die off after a single growing season (usually a year or less) while perennial plants regrow every spring.
30. Annual vs. Biannual Plants – Annual plants die off after a single growing season while biannual plants can live for two growing seasons.
Facts about Plant Ages and Sizes
31. Plants experience indeterminate growth. In other words, perennial plants have no defined age or size.
32. Plants of the genus Welwitschia are considered immortal. Many members of this genus haven’t evolved for over 3,000 years.
33. The world’s largest and oldest living plant is Posidonia australis. Native to Shark Bay in Western Australia, this seagrass is thought to be at least 4,500 years old. It can spread across 180 kilometers of shallow ocean.
34. While Posidonia australis holds the record for the largest and oldest plant, the title for the oldest plant goes to a Great Basin bristlecone pine botanically known as Pinus longaeva. Found in the White Mountains of California, United States, this pine is believed to be 4,854 years old. That’s enough to make it the world’s oldest living individual non-clonal tree.
35. A coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) named Hyperion is currently the world’s tallest tree. The 38-foot-tall tree is found in Redwood National Park in California, United States.
36. Watermeal (Wolffia spp.) is considered the world’s shortest and smallest plant. A member of the duckweed family, this plant averages 1/42” long and 1/85”. That’s about the size of a candy sprinkle.
37. Wolffia, also known as duckweed, is the fastest-growing plant on the planet. However, bamboo is the fastest-growing woody plant, with a growth rate of up to 1 meter per day.
38. Puya raimondii, commonly known as queen of the Andes or locally as puya de Raimondi, is the slowest-growing plant in the world. It takes between 100 and 150 years to bloom.
Facts about Plant Appearance and Odor
39. The rose is the world’s most beautiful flower. No wonder it’s christened “queen of the garden.”
40. However, the title for the most gorgeous houseplant goes to the nerve plant.
41. The Middlemist’s Red camellia is the rarest of all beautiful flowering plants. There are only two known examples of the plant; one in England and another in New England.
42. A new orchid species botanically known as Gastrodia agnicellus is considered the ugliest plant on the planet. The scruffy little plant was discovered by botanist Johan Hermans in a Madagascar rainforest.
43. A sunflower isn’t one distinct flower but a collection of hundreds of tiny flowers. These small flowers are called florets and ripen to produce seeds.
44. The bleeding heart (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) derives its name from the distinctive shape of its flowers, which resemble a pinkish heart with distinctive white tips that look like droplets. The plant is native to Siberia, China, Japan, and Korea.
45. The cockscomb (Celosia argentea var. cristata) produces brain-like flowers. That explains its common name ‘brain celosia.’
46. The Japanese blood grass (Imperata cylindrica), also known as cogon grass, is distinguishable by its blood-red spikes. Going through a patch of cogon grass would have you think that a bleeding person or animal was dragged through the grass.
47. The cobra lily (botanically called Darlingtonia californica and commonly known as the Californian pitcher plant) lives up to its name. This carnivorous plant produces tubular tops that resemble a cobra’s hood.
48. The corpse flower (botanically known as Titan arum) is so named because its blossoms exude the smell of rotting flesh.
49. The carrion plant (Stapelia gigantea) is another fetid-smelling plant. The surprisingly edible plant exudes such a repulsive smell that scientists are trying to figure out how to use it as an appetite suppressant.
50. The smell you get from freshly-cut grass is actually the plant’s distress call.
51. Onions are high in sulfuric acid. It’s this acid that irritates the nervous system when chopping onions, resulting in tears.
Facts about Plant Applications
52. Although commonly overlooked, water comprises the majority of a fruit or vegetable’s total weight. An apple is up to 84% water, a watermelon is 92% water, and cucumber is a whopping 96% water.
53. 90% of the foods we consume come from only 30 plant species.
54. The world’s most expensive spice, saffron, is obtained from a type of crocus flower.
55. At some point, glue was made from the juice obtained from bluebell flowers.
56. An average-size tree can produce wood large enough to make 170,100 pencils.
57. Humans can live considerably longer on plant-based diets than on animal diets.
58. Just 1% of rainforests have been studied for their medicinal potential and only 10% of the world’s plant-rich areas are protected.
Other Fun Plant Facts
59. Oak trees are more prone to lightning strikes than any other tree.
60. In the 1600s, tulips were once worth more than gold in Holland. However it wasn’t long before the tulip bubble burst in 1637, leading to a crash of the Dutch economy.
61. The strawberry is the only fruit that bears its seeds on the outside. And a single tree is capable of producing 200 seeds in one season.
62. Cranberries have small pockets of air inside them which makes them incredibly buoyant.
63. Tomatoes and avocados are fruits.
64. The word “fruit” is botanical while “vegetable” is culinary.
65. Peanuts are not nuts. They’re actually legumes, which make them more related to beans and lentils.
66. 80% of earth’s original forests have been destroyed. And Mother Nature is paying back in equal measure through climate change.
67. More than half of all plant species are native to just five countries – Brazil, Colombia, China, Indonesia, and Australia.
68. Belladonna loosely translates to “beautiful lady.” That might be a misnomer considering that this plant (more appropriately known as deadly nightshade and botanically as Atropa belladonna) is the most toxic plant. Ingesting belladonna extracts may cause delirium, hallucinations, and even death.
69. Mass crop production is informed more by a plant’s ease of cultivation and not its nutritional or therapeutic properties.
70. Plants are more than twice as adaptable as animals.
Wrap Up
The above collection wasn’t only meant to inform you about little-known plant facts. It was also intended to serve as a reminder that without these useful organisms, life as we know it wouldn’t exist.
Therefore, always spare some thought for plants. A good place to start would be to plant a tree or two on the upcoming International Day of Forests (March 21).