ABSTRACT
Pl a n t s are essential to almost all life on earth, providing protection and sustenance for organisms ranging from bacteria to large mammals. With their unique capacity for photosynthesis, they form the basis of the biologi cal food web, while producing oxygen and mopping up excess levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Plants also perform a number of other im portant environmental services like recycling essential nutrients, stabilizing soils, protecting water recruitment areas, and helping rainfall control via the process of transpiration.
