Plants have many important uses for humans. They provide us with food like fruits, vegetables, nuts and grains. We eat different parts of plants like stems, roots, leaves, flowers and seeds. Plants also give us medicines, fibers, wood, oils, spices and other materials. They help produce many everyday items and play a vital role in ecosystems by producing oxygen and supporting other species.

1. USES OF PLANTS
By Aniruddh Kommajosyula
III C
Delhi Public School, Nerul
•Plants have many uses.
•We get most of our food from plants – let us study them

2. PLANTS GIVE US FOOD
PLANTS GIVE US DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOOD.
WE GET FRUITS, VEGETABLES AND NUTS FROM PLANTS.
FRUITS VEGETABLES
 Mangoes
 Grapes
 Pears
 Oranges
 Guavas
 Watermelons
 Strawberries
 Potatoes
 Radishes
 Carrots
 Onions
 Bottle
gourds
 Cucumbers
 Beans
 Capsicums
NUTS
 Ground Nut
 Coconut
 Walnut
 Cashew Nut
Important: Tomato and Brinjal are actually fruits .

3. WE EAT DIFFERENT PARTS OF A PLANT
STEMS ROOTS
 POTATO
 ONION
 ASPARAGUS
 CARROT
 RADISH
 TURNIP
 TURMERIC
 BEETROOT
FLOWERS
 CAULIFLOWER
 BROCCOLI
LEAVES
 CABBAGE
 LETTUCE
SEEDS
CORN
GROUNDNUT

4. FOOD GRAINS
DRY SEED-LIKE FRUITS OF SOME PLANTS, WHICH WE USE AS FOOD.
Cereals
 The food grains of many
plants like rice, wheat,
maize, barley and oat that
we eat are called cereals.
 Some cereals are ground to
make flour.
PLANTS GIVE US FOOD GRAINS.
Pulses
 The food grains like arhar,
moong dal, chana dal etc.
that we eat are known as
pulses.
 These are cooked dry or in
the form of curry or eaten
with cereals.

5. USES OF PARTS OF PLANTS
 Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, and sugar are from plants.
 The flowers and fruits of some plants like rose, lemon and mango are used to
make sherbets, juices and jams.
 Juices and oils of certain plants are used to make soaps, shampoos and
toothpastes.
 Sweet-smelling flowers of plants like rose and jasmine are used to make
perfumes.
 The juices of certain trees are used to make paints.
 We get dyes from plants like Henna (Mehendi).
 Spices:
 A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root or bark of some plants.
 We get many types of spices like cardamom, cinnamon and pepper from plants.
 Spices add flavor to our food.
 (Note: Bark is the outer covering of tree trunk)

6. PLANTS ALSO GIVE US:
 OIL:
 Different types of Oils like Sunflower oil, coconut oil, Groundnut oil, Mustard oil,
vegetable oil etc. are obtained from plants.
 MEDICINE:
 Plants like tulsi, neem, clove, turmeric are used for making medicines.
 FIBRES:
 We get fibres from plants.
 Clothes are made from fibres.
 Jute and Cotton are two types of Fibres.
 WOOD:
 We get wood from plants like teak, oak and bamboo.
 Wood is used to make houses, doors, windows, and furnitures.
 Also wood is used to make a number of other things like boats and carts.

7. OTHER USES OF PLANTS:
 The paper we use comes from the Bamboo plant.
 The pencil erasers we use are made of rubber.
 We get rubber from the juice of the Rubber tree.
 Rubber is also used to make tyres and pipes.
 We get gum from the Acacia tree.
 Gum is also used to make glue.
 Plants are home to many animals.
 Insects, birds and small animals live on plants.
 Plants keep the air we breathe fresh and clean.
 We use flowers and leaves of some plants for bouquets(A group of
flowers).
 Garlands are made from flowers.