Plants Are Useful Chapter Notes | Environmental Studies Class 2 ICSE PDF Download

Introduction

Plants are our green friends. They help us in many ways. We get yummy food, clothes, and many things from plants. Plants make our world beautiful and keep the air clean. They also give homes to animals. In this chapter, we will learn how plants are useful to us and animals.

Plants Give Us Food

• Plants give us food to eat. We eat different parts of plants.
  • We eat roots of plants like radish and carrot.
  • We eat stems of plants like sugar cane and ginger.
  • We eat leaves of plants like cabbage and spinach.
  • We eat fruits of plants like pear and apple.
  • We eat seeds of plants like peas and maize.
  • We eat flowers of plants like broccoli and cauliflower.
• We also get nuts from plants.
  • Nuts are dry fruits with hard shells.
  • Some nuts are almond, groundnut, and cashew nut.
• Plants give us spices.
  • Spices add taste, color, and nice smell to food.
  • We can keep spices for a long time.
  • Some common spices are black pepper, clove, cinnamon, and cardamom.
  • Three spices in garam masala are black pepper, clove, and cardamom.
• Plants give us tea, coffee, sugar, and cocoa.
• We get oil from plants like coconut, groundnut, mustard, and sunflower.
  • We use oil for cooking.
  • We use oil as medicine.
  • We put oil on hair and body.

Fun Fact

• To get oil, we crush seeds of plants rich in oil.
• The groundnut plant is actually a green bush. Its nuts grow with the roots.

Plants Provide Shelter

• Plants are homes for many animals.
• Monkeys, squirrels, birds, and insects live on plants and trees.

Plants Keep the Air Fresh

• Plants take in carbon dioxide.
• Plants give out oxygen.
• Humans and animals need oxygen to breathe.
• Oxygen is also needed for burning.
• Plants make the air fresh and clean.

Plants Give Food to Animals

• Many animals eat different parts of plants.

Other Uses of Plants

• Many medicines are made from plants like holy basil (tulsi), neem, and eucalyptus.
• Clove is a spice used as a medicine for a toothache.
• Plants give us fibre to make clothes, bags, ropes, and other things.
• We get fibre from jute plants, cotton plants, and the outer shell of coconut.
• Jute plant gives us fibre to make jute bags.
• Cotton plant gives us fibre to make cotton shirts.
• The outer shell of coconut gives us fibre to make ropes.
• We get wood from trees like teak, deodar, or sheesham.
• Wood is used to make furniture, doors, and windows.
• We also use wood as fuel.
• Paper is made from the pulp of bamboo trees.
• We get dyes from plants like henna and indigo.
• Henna and indigo are used to color things.
• We get resin from the juice of a pine tree.
• Resin is used in paints.
• We get rubber from a rubber tree.
• We get gum from the juice of the stem of an acacia tree.
• We use petals of flowers like rose and jasmine to make perfumes.
• Dry leaves are used to make compost.
• We add compost to the soil to make plants grow well.
• Flowers and leaves of many plants are used for decoration and for making bouquets.