Kids Research Express

The passionflower, a close relative of the violets, is a woody-stemmed climbing plant that grows to a height of 10 m (30 ft). Passionflowers are cultivated for their unique flowers and edible fruits. Passionflower, common name for a flowering plant family, and especially for members of its principal genus. The flowers are usually perfect, generally having a five-parted calyx and five-parted corolla. All species have a more or less conspicuous crown of filaments springing from the throat of the tube formed by the base of the calyx and corolla. The family contains about 530 species, most of which are climbing plants, such as the passion vine of the southern United States, which sometimes reaches a height of 9 m (30 ft). The bell apple, or water lemon, of the West Indies is a species of passionflower with an edible fruit. The giant granadilla is a closely related plant native to Jamaica and South America. The pulp, or aril, surrounding each seed of the giant granadilla plant is used...

Indigo Plant, common name for any of a genus of shrubs or perennial herbs (see Legume). The genus has about 700 species, most native to tropical regions. Indigo plants have compound leaves and bear purple, pink, or white flowers. Their fruit consists of pods. Various Asian species contain the glycoside indican, which can be oxidized to produce the dyestuff indigo. Of a long-lasting, deep-blue color, indigo was an important Indian, Egyptian, and Roman dye during antiquity. It was first introduced into Europe during the 16th century. Most indigo dye today is synthetically manufactured. Scientific classification: Indigo plants constitute the genus Indigofera, of the family Papilionoideae.

Foxglove Plant The common foxglove is grown for decorative and medicinal purposes. The flowers contain glycosides (chemicals that affect heartbeat and pulse), which can be extracted from the leaves and used to regulate and strengthen a person’s heartbeat. However, if plant materials containing glycosides are directly consumed by humans, nausea, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and heartbeat and pulse abnormalities can result. If consumed in large enough quantities, glycosides can cause convulsions and death.

Aconite, common name for certain perennial herbs and for a preparation derived from them that was formerly used in medicine. More than 100 species belong to the aconite genus and are native to temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. Several species, including the helmet flower, a well-known European species, are cultivated as garden plants in the United States. The common aconites have fibrous or tuberous roots, mostly erect stems, and palmately divided or cleft leaves. The flowers in most species are blue or purple, although some species have yellow or white flowers. The outer, showy parts of the bilaterally symmetrical flower are five in number, and the uppermost is shaped like a large, downward-opening hood. Because of this hood, which immediately distinguishes aconite from larkspur, aconites are commonly called monkshood. They are also known as wolfsbane. Aconites contain highly active alkaloids, especially aconitine, and are poisonous to both humans and animals. The hel...

Lichens are common food for insects and slugs. In the arctic tundra, reindeer and caribou rely on lichens during the winter, when no other food is available. Several species of lichens that sprout up through the snow are called reindeer mosses. Humans rarely eat lichens except in cases where no other food is available. The Bible may chronicle one such example: Some scholars believe that the manna or bread that the ancient Israelites ate in the desert when they fled Egypt was made of lichen. In Japan, where algae as well as fungi are prized foods, certain lichens are eaten as delicacies. Although lichens have been used in folk medicine as purported cures for many ills, from headaches and toothaches to tuberculosis , diabetes , and asthma , their use in modern medicine is recent. The discovery in the 1940s that some fungi produce potent antibiotics stimulated an extensive screening of fungi and lichens. Since then, lichen extracts have found limited use in Europe, where lichen a...

Lichens lack roots, but they are usually firmly attached to the surfaces where they grow by hyphae. Lichens grow excruciatingly slowly, adding a few millimeters to their length or diameter in a year. The fastest growing varieties may add no more than 30 mm (1.2 in) to their length in a year. Lichens may have long life spans—a lichen found in West Greenland in the Arctic is more than 4,500 years old. Scientists have used the sizes of large specimens to estimate how long it has been since glaciers covered arctic and mountain areas.  During prolonged dry periods, lichens survive by retaining a small amount of water and reducing their growth and metabolic processes to the barest survival levels. After a rain, the fungal partner is able to soak up water like a sponge, absorbing two to three times its weight in water. A moist internal environment is critical for the alga, which needs water, along with carbon dioxide and sunlight, to manufacture food through photosynthesis. During dr...