Fun facts about Plants!

How interesting do you find plants?

(Picture: Gorse flowers on Arthur´s seat)

• Super boring

• Kind of boring

• Kind of interesting

• Super interesting!

Lots of plants are used in medicine. Can you guess just how many?

• 50 - A garden's worth!

• 6,000 - A small forest's worth!

• 30,000 - Almost a jungle!

• 4,500,000 - An entire planet of medicinal plants!

Plants are the unsung heroes of our planet. They provide us with food, oxygen, and medicine, regulate our climate, purify the air, and even shape our culture, religion, and overall wellbeing.

Can you guess how much the support plants offer our planet is valued at in economic terms?

• £ 2 million

• £ 340 million

• £ 5 trillion

• £ 110 trillion

Turns out there's more plant species than we know about! Can you guess how many we discover every year?

• 500

• 2,000

• 10,000

• 1 million

What percentage of all known wild plant species do you think are threatened with extinction?

• 20%

• 30%

• 40%

• 50%

Answer explanation

We know for certain that over 570 plant species have ceased to exist since 1750.

Tulip Mania! In the 1600s, tulip bulbs were more precious than gold!
They even caused a massive economic crash in the Netherlands.

• true

• false

Answer explanation

Homes, estates, and industries were mortgaged so that bulbs could be bought for resale at higher prices. Sales and resales were made many times over without the bulbs ever leaving the ground, and rare varieties of bulbs sold for the equivalent of hundreds of dollars each.

Which plant is the fastest growing plant on earth?

• Bamboo

• Grass

• Giant Sequoia Tree

• Moss

Answer explanation

Bamboo can grow almost 1 metre (3 feet) every single day!

Imagine standing next to the General Sherman, the world's biggest tree! This 2500-year old Giant Sequoia tree stretches up as tall as a 30-storey building.

Guess how many adults would need to join hands to give it a hug!

• 5 adults

• 11 adults

• 16 adults

• 20 adults

Which of these plant 'secrets' do you think are actually true?

• Plants can talk

• Plants treat their siblings better than strangers

• Plants react to sound

• Plants compete for sunlight

• Plants can tell what time and season it is

How interesting do you find plants now?

• Super boring

• Kind of boring

• Kind of interesting

• Super interesting!