Plants

Have you ever felt something cool and tickly under your bare feet at the park. Or have you taken a big bite of a sweet, juicy apple that crunches when you chew. I can be a tall, shady friend you climb in your backyard, with strong branches to hold you. I take a big drink of sunshine for my breakfast and then I breathe out all the fresh, clean air you need to run and play all day long. I love to wear all sorts of bright colors, from my green leaves and red flowers to my yellow bananas and purple grapes. You can find me almost everywhere you look, reaching for the sky or peeking out of a crack in the sidewalk. Can you guess who I am. I am all around you. I am Plants.

For a very, very long time, people had to walk all day just to find me. They would search high and low for my yummy berries, my crunchy nuts, and my tasty roots to fill their bellies. It was a lot of work. But then, around 10,000 BCE, people living in a warm, sunny place called the Fertile Crescent had a wonderful and brilliant idea. They noticed that my tiny seeds, the little specks that fall to the ground, could be planted to grow a whole new me. This was the beginning of farming. Instead of searching for food, people could grow big fields of wheat to make bread and barley to make warm soup. This changed everything. Because they could grow me right where they lived, they didn't have to move around anymore. They could build cozy villages that grew into busy towns and even giant cities. Much, much later, around the 3rd century BCE, a very smart man in ancient Greece named Theophrastus spent his whole life studying me. He carefully wrote down everything he learned about my leaves, my roots, and my flowers in some of the very first science books. He wanted everyone to understand how amazing and important my big plant family is.

Today, I am still your partner in making the world a wonderful and healthy place. I am the soft cotton in your favorite t-shirt and the strong wood that makes up your pencil. When you sit down for dinner, I am the healthy vegetables on your plate, like crispy carrots and green beans. I am also a home. I give birds a safe place to build their nests and I give buzzing bees a place to find sweet nectar for their honey. Every single day, I work hard to keep our planet’s air clean and fresh for everyone to breathe. Every time you help your family in a garden, water a little flower on your windowsill, or choose a sweet strawberry for a snack, you are helping my story grow. Let’s keep working together to make our world a greener, happier, and more beautiful place for everyone.