Plants help sustain life on Earth

Plants supply 90 per cent of the world's food. Apart from saving us (and animals) from starvation, what else are plants good for? Plants add oxygen to the air and remove carbon dioxide from it through photosynthesis, and consequently the forests have been called the Earth's 'lungs'.

Without these 'lungs', there could be no life on the planet.Carbon dioxide would start building up and temperaturs would rise, heating up the atmosphere. Life as we know it would not be able to survive.

About 75 per cent of the world's population uses plants or plant extracts as sources of medicine. Amazingly, tropical rainforests provide a home for half the world's animal and plant species.

A 50-metre tree is like a block of flats with many different crea tures living on different floors.

But even small plants, like the ones in your home, have tiny creatures living in them.

As well as making our towns more beautiful, plants also act as a buffer against noise and absorb some air pollutants. Everyone likes to live in a healthy environment.