How many of us have unthinkingly bought apples wrapped in plastic? Don’t worry, this isn’t another diatribe about plastic (we’re saving that for later). It’s a rant about plants.
Wrapping a layer of superfluous plastic around food items that come with their own inbuilt protective covering is just another depressing example of the disconnect between what we eat and where it comes from. It’s also a symptom of a phenomenon known as ‘plant blindness’, the term used to highlight how humans, particularly in western societies, fail to notice the plants around them.
The Green Planet, presented by Fauna & Flora vice-president and ambassador, Sir David Attenborough, was a real eye-opener, and ought to be compulsory viewing for anyone questioning what plants have ever done for us. By now, we should be preaching to the converted, but – just to be sure – here’s another piece in praise of plants, liberally sprinkled with some eye-popping facts that should help focus your mind on just how extraordinary and indispensable they are.
We obtain 60% of our energy intake from just three plant species
Bending plants to our will is a double-edged sword. Our dependency on rice, wheat and maize leaves us in a precarious position in the face of climate change and the predicted spread of new pests and diseases it will facilitate. Food for thought indeed.
The answer to this problem lies in wild species closely related to domesticated crops. These wild cousins of crops are naturally adapted to a range of environmental conditions, possessing traits that can be used by breeders to develop new resilient varieties able to tolerate increasing drought, salinity or pest attack. But as Fauna & Flora well knows, many of these priceless genetic resources are under threat. If we lose these wild species, we lose vital adaptations, evolved over millions of years, that could help address today’s challenges.
Before you bite into some shop-bought fruit, spare a thought for its wild counterparts in Central Asia, where Fauna & Flora is working with communities to save species such as the endangered Niedzwetzky’s apple and the critically endangered Bukharan pear and safeguard the fruit-and-nut forests where today’s domesticated varieties originated.
Around 30,000 plant species are used in medicine
The medicinal value of plants is incalculable. Currently, less than 15% of the species used are recorded in a medicinal publication. The potential for further exploration is fathomless.
Of all traded medicinal plants, trade in which has trebled in the past 20 years, 75% are still wild collected and many people are reliant on these for primary medical care. For example, 60% of childhood malaria cases are first treated with herbal remedies. Every species that disappears is a vital resource lost, or a potential one squandered.
Plant-based ecosystems are worth an estimated US$145 trillion per year
Plants underpin all ecosystems on Earth. They provide us not only with food and medicines but also with countless raw materials. And that economic value is merely the tip of the taproot. Plants regulate our climate, clean the air that we breathe, safeguard our water supply and stabilise our soils.They also shape our culture, religion and well-being, and even permeate our everyday speech. We could fill an entire article with examples of how we pepper our language with references to plants, but let’s nip that idea in the bud before someone accuses us of resorting to an old chestnut.
We rely on mpingo for 100,000 clarinets every year
How many connoisseurs of classical music have heard of mpingo? Its dark, lustrous heartwood – the holy grail for woodwind instrument makers – is one of the world’s most valuable timbers, but the species suffered a precipitous decline as a result of over-exploitation. Next time you listen to Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, give thanks for the SoundWood programme that Fauna & Flora established in 1995 to protect mpingo and other timber species from commercial extinction.
Learn More> https://www.fauna-flora.org/news/the-truth-about-plants-seven-fun-fascinating-and-frightening-facts/