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Plants play a few very important roles. For example, they provide us with food and they even help us to breathe.

Plants are really important for most life on Earth as they are the source of food for many animals. Often these animals are then eaten by other animals. If there weren't any plants, this would affect the food chain as the different animals wouldn't be able to survive.

Many of our medicines have come from plants. However, there are still lots of plants that have not been discovered yet. What medicines might there still be to discover?

Plants make their own food in their leaves in a process called photosynthesis . During this they release oxygen from their leaves. This gas is needed by all living things. So without plants, many other organisms would not be alive. They also take in carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis. They help to remove harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

The next time you take a walk around your garden, the countryside or your local park, why don’t you look for as many different plants as you can find. Trees make a good starting point.

You could:

• draw pictures
• take bark rubbings
• collect leaves and seeds in autumn.