Plants Essays (Examples)

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Essay
Plants Make Life on Earth
Pages: 2 Words: 642

Additionally, plants can house animals or provide prey animals with cover and camouflage to prevent them from being over-hunted. They also help create a more sustainable ecosystem. The presence of plants moderates the temperature and mitigates the effects of the wind and sun. The plants in the rainforest keep the rainfall patterns in balance with the rest of the earth's ecosystem ("The Biology of Plants," Missouri Botanical Gardens, 2009).
Even when plants are not directly consumed for food, they can help sustain human beings. Plants hold the soil together and guard against erosion. Plant compost acts as fertilizer for the soil. Plants can be used as medicine in the form of herbs and other medicinal plant derivatives, or as products in the form of rubber, burlap, and cotton. Plants were and are the first source of warmth -- wood is necessary to heat an old-fashioned stove and to build a…...

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Works cited

"The Biology of Plants." Missouri Botanical Gardens. November 15, 2009.

http://www.mbgnet.net/bioplants/earth.html

Farabee, M.J. "Photosynthesis." Online Biology Book. June 17, 2007. November 15, 2009.

http://www.emc.maricopa.edu/faculty/farabee/BIOBK/BioBookPS.html

Essay
Plants Let I Be the
Pages: 2 Words: 586


(3) Macon plant has to dispose 42 bbl of waste to Duras.

(4) Selma plant has to dispose 1 bbl of waste to White water and 52 bbl to Los Canos

(5) Columbus plant has to dispose 29 bbl of waste to Whitewater

(6) Allentown plant has to dispose 28 bbl of waste to Los Canos and 10 bbl to Duras

The total minimum cost involved in shipping waste directly from the 6 plants to the 3 waste disposable sites is $2,822.

Part 2:

NB: Click on the excel object sheet below and scroll up and/or down to view all numbers

The results from excel show that to minimize transshipment costs,

(1) Kingport plant has to drop off 19 bbl of its of waste at Macon and ship 16 bbl directly to Los Canos

(2) Danville plant has to dispose 26 bbl of waste directly to Duras.

(3) Macon plant has to dispose (42bbl + 17 bbl +19bbl=78bbl) of waste…...

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References

Bernard W. Taylor, III (2007). Introduction to Management Science.

David Ray Anderson, Dennis J. Sweeney, Thomas A. Williams, R. Kipp Martin (2007). An introduction to management science: quantitative approaches to decision making.

Essay
Why There Would Be No People Without Plants
Pages: 2 Words: 656

Plants and Humans
Plants, one of the six taxonomic Kingdoms of different life forms generally accepted throughout the United States, play an important role in the existence of other life forms such as animals. In fact, plants are so important for life on planet Earth that humans could not exist without plants. Photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into oxygen and water, is responsible for the creation of the Earth's atmosphere; and the life forms that have evolved in it. In addition to creating the environment, plants also maintain that environment by constantly converting carbon dioxide into the oxygen necessary for human survival. Plants also provide the food that is necessary for humans to survive, as well as providing the basis for the survival of other species that are also essential to human survival. In short, plants are indispensable to the human race and people could…...

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References

Berg, Linda. (2008). Introductory Botany: Plants, People, and the Environment.

Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education. Print.

Ke, Bacon. (2003). Photosynthesis: Photobiochemistry and Photobiophysics. New York:

Kluwer Academic Publishers. Print.

Essay
Regional Ornamental Perennial Plants Specifically
Pages: 5 Words: 1566


Disease can also be a worry with Hostas. They are susceptible to certain plant viruses, and these can be serious. Usually, the only cure is to identify and destroy the infected plant before it infects others in the garden. Leaves can also be damaged by chemicals, cold or frost, or by too much sun, resulting in sunburn (Heinke and Martin). As more Hostas are developed, it seems many of these problems will be addressed and Hostas will become even more trouble-free to grow and maintain.

In conclusion, Hostas are the most popular plant in landscaping today. They are beautiful, offer thousands of unique varieties, and are relatively simple for even a beginning gardener to grow and maintain. It is easy to see why Hosta fanciers are so enamored of the plant. The diversity, size, and adaptability of Hostas make them perfect for just about any garden, no matter where it is…...

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References

Editors. "Hosta Farm." Hostafarm.com. 2007. 14 May 2007. http://www.hostafarm.com/

Editors. "The American Hosta Society." Hosta.org. 2007. 14 May 2007. http://www.hosta.org/index.htm

Heinke, Gretchen and Martin, Jane. "Growing Hostas." Ohio State University. 2001. 14 May 2007.  http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1239.html 

Pollock, Dr. Warren. "Hostas in North America." GardenWeb.com. 1996. 14 May 2007.  http://www.gardenweb.com/cyberplt/people/pollock.html

Essay
People Without Plants Biology When a Person
Pages: 2 Words: 733

People without Plants
Biology

When a person goes into the rainforest or the ocean, that person can readily notice that the rainforest and the ocean are teeming with life. An observer of these places will also notice how every form of life works together to sustain the environment. Though human beings build artificial environments such as cities, humans are a part of the ecosystem on Earth, and they participate in this co-dependency on other forms of life to survive as well as to sustain the environment. A form of life that humans are dependent on are plants. Without plants, human beings would have no air to breathe and their respiratory systems would fail. There would exist no human civilizations without oxygen. Perhaps there would be other forms of life in the place of humanity that breathed another gas, but humanity would not exist as we know it today were it not…...

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References:

Pimental, P., Wilson, C., McCullum, C., Huang, R., Dwen, P., Flack, J., Saltman, T., & Cliff, B. (1997) "Economic and Environmental Benefits of Biodiversity."BioScience, 47(11), 747 -- 757.

Raskin, I., Ribnicky, D.M., Komarnytsky, S., Ilic, N., Poulev, A., Borisjuk, N., Brinker, A., Moreno, D.A., Ripoli, C., Yakoby, N., O'Neal, J.M., Cornwell, T., Pastor, I., & Fridlender, B. (2002) "Plants & Human Health in the 21st Century." TRENDS in Biotechnology, 20(12), 522 -- 531.

Essay
Pollen and Plants
Pages: 3 Words: 963

Carnivorous Plants
Botany, te study of plants, can be a tedious subject given te numerous varieties of plants tat are available to study, along wit teir similarities, and redundancy. However, a brigt spot in te plant community is te carnivorous plants, te meat-eaters - te gory plants tat science fiction novels are made about. Tere are almost 600 species of tese plants tat eat meat growing in te wild, and tese plants not only ave an intimidating look, but some species can eat "frogs, birds or even small monkeys" (Stiefel 65).

Wat Makes Carnivorous Plants Different From Regular Plants?

Carnivorous plants are not all tat different from regular plants. Te posses te abilities to attract insects (or oter prey), capture tem, kill tem, digest tem, and absorb te nutrients. Noncarnivorous plants ave flowers tat attract insects (tink bees) and some even can capture insects; some flowers ave te toxic compounds to kill insects…...

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Accessed 11/17/02http://www.sarracenia.com/faq.html .

Stiefel, Chana. "Meat-Eating Plants." Science World. 220 March 2000, pp. 65-66

Stone, Doris. The Lives of Plants. New York, New York: Scribner & Sons. 1983, 304 pages.

Essay
Narcotic Plants
Pages: 8 Words: 2865

Narcotic plants and stimulants have been widely used in North as well as outh America even before the discovery, 'not only for the purpose of exhilaration or intoxication, but also in connection with the practice of necromancy and in religious rituals and ceremonies accompanying the initiation of boys into the status of manhood.'(afford, 1916: Pg: 387, P.I) Narcotic plants belong to those categories of plants called Psychedelic or Hallucinogenic plants. The term 'narcotic' indicates the presence of certain chemical compounds in the plant compounds that causes the hallucinating effect. Narcotics that cause hallucinations are known by various names depending on its effects - hallucinogens being hallucination generators, psychotomimetics functioning as psychosis mimickers, psychotaraxics being mind disturbers, and psychedelics being mind manifesters.
Hallucinogenic" is the term most often used in the psychiatric research literature for these substances. (Mesner, 1998: Pg: 2, p. I) The term hallucinogens are generally used to describe the…...

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Safford E. William, Narcotic Plants and Stimulants of the Ancient Americans, Annual Reports of the Smithonian Institute, Pg. 387, p: I, 1916

Shultes, Richard Evans, Hallucinogenic Plants, Western Publishing Company, Inc., New York. Pg 5, p: III, 1976

Shew, Joel Tobacco: Its History, Nature, and Effects on the Body and Mind, (Stoke, England:G. Turner Pub Co, Pg: 16, p:II, 1849

Essay
Relationship Humans Plants How Plants Acquire Carbon
Pages: 4 Words: 1312

relationship humans plants. How plants acquire carbon dioxide release oxygen? For purposes plants acquire carbon dioxide? Do a plant survive air tight box plant needed a source oxygen?.
Why there would be no people without plants

The connection between humans and nature has been a primordial one, actively discussed not only in life sciences but also in literature. Ever since the start of the evolutionary process plants have been an incredible source for food, medicine and even shelter, however the greatest benefit plants have given the human race is oxygen.

Photosynthesis is the process that converts energy in sunlight to chemical forms of energy, which can be used by biological systems. This procedure is carried out by plants and bacteria; a higher form of photosynthesis is completed by algae, cyanobacteria and their relatives (notably known for the photosynthesis in the oceanic ecosystem). These organisms covert CO2 to organic material by reducing this…...

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Vermaas, W. (1998). An introduction to photosynthesis and its applications. The world and I, Nr. 3, p. 158-165

Wackernagel, M. And Rees, W. (1996). Our ecological footprint: reducing human impact on the earth. Gabriola Island, Canada, New Society Publishers

Whitmarsh, J and Govindjee, (1995). Photosynthesis. Encyclopedia of applied physics, Vol. 13, p. 513-532

Essay
Effects of Coffee Grounds on the Growth of Tomato Plants
Pages: 2 Words: 756

stimuli can affect plant growth rates, robustness, flowering, and even fruit production. We also know that nitrogen is an important part of plant development, and contributes significantly to the thickness, leaf count, and stem width in most plants. A plant that is nitrogen deficient is generally small and develops slowly because it lacks the nitrogen necessary to manufacture adequate structure and genetic materials. This could leave the structure pale green, because it lacks adequate chlorophyll. On the other hand some plants may grow rapidly when supplied with excessive nitrogen. They develop protoplasm faster than they can build sufficient supporting materials in cell walls. The plant may grow weaker and be prone to more pathogens or injuries while developing smaller fruits or fruits with less seeds (Foyer and Zhang, eds. 2010).
Background- Coffee grounds have long been known to increase compost value and act as a fertilizer in plants. In fact,…...

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REFERENCES

Chalker-Scott, L. (Winter 2009). Coffee Grounds -- Will they Perk Up Plants?

Master Gardener. Cited in:  http://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20chalker-scott/horticultural%20myths_files/Myths/Coffee%20grounds.pdf 

Foyer, C. And Zhang, H., eds. (2010). Nitrogen Metabolism in Plants. Annual Review of Plants, Volume 42. New York: John Wiley.

Essay
Medicinal Uses of Plants First
Pages: 5 Words: 1842


Conclusion

The research showed that medicinal plants, commonly referred to as medicinal herbs, have been used by humankind for thousands of years for virtually every type of misery, real or imagined. The research also showed that the resurgence of interest in medicinal plants today relates not only to their potential for providing new medicine preparations, but the fact that there is an enormous amount of money involved as well, with little or none of it being returned by the multinational pharmaceutical companies to the indigenous peoples who depend on these plant materials as a primary source of medicine. In the final analysis, the ancient shamans, witchdoctors and medicine men around the world were clearly on the right track when they observed how these plants affected sick animals, and their trials and efforts at identifying those plants with the most efficacious qualities has provided mankind today with a cornucopia of medicines that…...

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Works Cited

Arntzen, Charles J. (1997). "Edible Vaccines." Public Health Reports, 112(3):190.

Changeux, Jean-Pierre. (1998). "Drug Use and Abuse." Daedalus, 127(2):145.

Changkija, Sapu. (2000). "Folk Medicinal Plants of the Nagas in India." Asian Folklore Studies, 58(1):205.

Crellin, John K. And Jane Philpott. Trying to Give Ease: Tommie Bass and the Story of Herbal Medicine. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990.

Essay
Plant Biology
Pages: 2 Words: 714

Plant Biology
Shoot architecture enhances photosynthesis largely by maximizing the ability of the plant to get sunlight. Obviously light is the crucial resource in photosynthesis, but different plants obtain the resource in different ways. For example, the basic arrangement of leaves on the plant stem (known as "phyllotaxy") is different for every species of plant -- however, in all of these cases the plant has evolved so that the emergence of leaves does not block the available light for leaves above or below. The evolutionary reason for this should be obvious: as leaves exist purely to facilitate photosynthesis, the production of leaves that underperform due to inadequate access to sunlight would be a waste of the plant's resources. We can also see the evolutionary imperative expressed in leaf size: in cold or dry environments without much access to liquid water, the leaf size is drastically shrunken in an attempt to balance…...

Essay
Plant Growth
Pages: 1 Words: 453

earth's rotation affect plant growth?
The seasons of the year are produced by the tilt of the axis of the Earth. The earth's tilt on its axis causes the hours of daylight to shorten during the cooler months of the year. This affects the changing of the seasons and indirectly affects plant growth, as a plant's ability to survive and flourish will depend on the area where it is located and the relative heat or chill of that region and the region's exposure to sunlight. ("ill the equinoxes and solstices switch places in 13,000 years because of the precession of the Earth's rotation axis?" 2005) "Summer in the northern hemisphere occurs at the same time as winter in the south, and vice-versa." ("hat Causes the Seasons?" 2005) The precession of the equinoxes of the Earth is a motion that causes the axis of the Earth's rotation to remain fixed at…...

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Work Cited

"Does the Earth's magnetic field daily changes affect plant germination and growth?" (2005) Ask a Space Scientist. NASA. Retrieved 16 Oct 2005 at  http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/a11575.html 

'What Causes the Seasons?" (2005) Windows to the Universe. Retrieved 16 Oct 2005 at http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/the_universe/uts/seasons1.html

'Will the equinoxes and solstices switch places in 13,000 years because of the precession of the Earth's rotation axis?" (2005) Ask a Space Scientist. NASA. Retrieved 16 Oct 2005 at 2005  http://image.gsfc.nasa.gov/poetry/ask/q1795.html

Essay
Plant Defense Against Predators
Pages: 2 Words: 676

Biology
Strategic Defense in the Plant Kingdom

The purpose of this literature review is to detail the different ways plants protect themselves from predators. Knowledge of plant defenses can help boost understanding of more effective means of minimizing pesticide and herbicide use in agriculture or alternatively, to help develop more effective and targeted chemical pesticides and herbicides. Understanding plant defenses requires knowledge of plant biology and their role in their respective ecosystems. Moreover, their defenses ensure the survival not only of individual plants, but of whole ecosystems.

Plants have no immune system, in the same way animals do (Freeman & Beattie, 2008). Instead, they boast "a stunning array of structural, chemical, and protein-based defenses designed to detect invading organisms and stop them before they are able to cause extensive damage," (p. 1). The defenses plants have evolved to ward off predators can be loosely grouped into three categories: surface-based protections (morphological protections such…...

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References

Freeman, B.C. & Beattie, G.A. (2008). An overview of plant defenses against pathogens and herbivores. The Plant Health Instructor. Retrieved online:  http://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/intropp/topics/Pages/OverviewOfPlantDiseases.aspx 

Pare, P.W. & Tumlinson, J.H. (1999). Plant volatiles as a defense against insect herbivores. Plant Physiology 121(2).

"Plant Defense Against Being Eaten," (n.d). Science Daily. Retrieved online:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/p/plant_defense_against_herbivory.htm 

Schardl, C.L. (2002). Plant defenses against herbivore and insect attack. Encyclopedia of Life Sciences. Retrieved online: http://rubisco.ugr.es/fisiofar/pagwebinmalcb/contenidos/Tema29/defensa_contra_herbivoros.pdf

Essay
Sun Makes Plants Stronger The
Pages: 2 Words: 534

This physiological process allows plants to make their own food. Being able to make their own food through the process of photosynthesis, plants, unlike animals, no longer need to feed on other organisms in order to exist and survive. And since sunlight is required for this essential physiological process to occur, sunlight therefore makes the plants stronger.
Through the physiological process of photosynthesis, plants are able to release oxygen, the presence of which guarantees that existence of life on earth will continue. According to Hackel, the oxygen in the earth's atmosphere was released over 3,500 million years ago through plant photosynthesis and "without plants, there would be no oxygen in the earth's atmosphere." (22) The sun not only makes plants stronger, it also helps ensure that life on this planet continues.

Sunlight is also required by some plants in order to germinate. The sun helps the seeds of plants to germinate.…...

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Reference:

Hackel, Hans. "Why Plants Need Sunlight." Courier. February 2004. 13 July 2009 <  http://www.agrocourier.com/bayer/cropscience/cscms.nsf/id/Plasun_Agro/$file/plants_sunlight.pdf >.

Essay
Sayano Shushenskaya Hydro Power Plant Disaster
Pages: 10 Words: 2778

Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydro Power Plant Disaster
Company Background

Sayano -- Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is geographically located on the Yenisei iver, near Sayanogorsk in Khakassia, ussia. It was the largest hydro electrical power plant in ussian and sixth largest hydro electrical power station in the world, until the accident has occurred. The plant was operated by usHydro, which was established in December 2004 during ussia's privatization movement, however about 60% of its shares are owned by ussian government. The milestone of usHydro operation was that it has recorded the satiation's all-time highest electricity output in 24 hours (usHydro, July 2009). usHydro has 55 hydro plants with the installed capacity of 25.4 GW. The annual energy generation recorded by Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station was about 23.4 TWh, which was almost one-quarter of that produced by usHydro's resources for the Unified Energy Systems of ussia and Siberia. The major consumer of the plant was United…...

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References

Akin, Melissa (August 2009). Russia markets ignore Chechen threat. Reuters.

Retrieved 15th Sept 2011.

 http://www.reuters.com/article/europeCrisis/idUSLL381101 .

Boyko, A. & Popov, S. (2010) Investigating the Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydro

Q/A
I am stuck on how to write a thesis for my definition essay of organ donation. How do I begin? what do I say?
Words: 347

Organ donation is a process that allows a person to donate their organs to another person.  Most organ donation is done after death and can be accomplished either through a person choosing to be an organ donor or by survivors choosing to donate the organs.  However, there are some organ donations from living donors, such as kidney transplants.  To some people, organ donation is an ethical issue, however the ethical perspectives vary.  For some, it is an ethical violation to donate organs and may go against religious norms.  For others, it is unethical not to....

Q/A
I need some Research topics related to greenhouse plant materials?
Words: 377

Building a greenhouse is a great way to ensure you have a steady supply of fresh vegetables, fresh flowers, or just beautiful houseplants.  Greenhouses can be built in a variety of different locations from the backyard to space stations.  Determining how to construct your greenhouse depends on what you are growing, wear you are located, and your access to materials.

Here is a list of potential research topics for greenhouse plant materials:

  1. Are metal frames superior to other frames for greenhouse construction, and does the answer to this question depend on the environment outside the greenhouse, the....

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