From the most ancient times, man has mastered agriculture and cattle breeding as the main types of economic activity. All the products that he received as a result of his labor were used for sewing clothes, making household items and cooking.
From the very sources, nature takes care of us and gives everything we need. Over time, man learned to use her gifts so widely that today there is probably not a single representative of the flora who would not be involved in any area of the economic activity of people.
What plants play the largest and most significant role in human life? Let's try to understand this issue, characterizing the most common areas of application of plant products.
Areas of use of plants by humans
Of the currently known 340 thousand species, about 200 representatives of the flora have been cultivated by humans. A significant portion is collected in wild habitats. This, for example, medicinal herbs.
In total, several main areas can be identified in which useful plants for humans are used:
- medicine (both traditional and alternative);
- food industry (including confectionery);
- textile production;
- tailoring;
- chemical production (obtaining dyes, various raw materials);
- decorative purposes (indoor plants, arrangement and design of premises, city streets);
- landscape design;
- use as a source of oxygen (in space, for example);
- plantations in the city strips to improve the ecological state of the environment.
Thus, it turns out that the areas of activity that are most important for a normal quality of life and the preservation of human health are provided by a plant-based raw material component. This makes it possible to argue that it is difficult to overestimate the role of flora for people.
Useful plants for humans
There are a lot of them. For each area of use its own. For example, in the chemical industry, plants are used from which natural dyes are obtained. In the same area of use is Hevea - a tree whose milky sap is a natural rubber. The beneficial properties of plants are familiar to man since ancient times and are widely used by them.
The food industry generally knows no boundaries in the use of plant products: starting from different varieties of wheat, barley, rye and other cereals and ending with cultivated fruits and root crops. After all, everything that grows in our gardens is used as food. Valuable proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, micro and macro elements a person receives from plants: rice, buckwheat, tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, ocean algae, etc., etc.
Plants in human life play an important aesthetic role. Indoor species are widespread and numerous. In addition to beauty, they carry the ability to clean and renew the air of the room, absorb and destroy harmful radiation and electromagnetic effects, eliminate negative energy and clean the air of pathogenic microbes. These plants include:
- cacti
- Saintpaulia;
- pelargonium;
- begonias;
- different types of ferns;
- milkweeds and other succulents and so on.
The role of some representatives of the flora in the textile industry is very significant. Do you know the name of the plants that “dress” a person and give him towels, bedding, shawls and other products of this industry? The main ones grown on a large scale include cotton and flax. Let's consider these and some other types in more detail.
What plants are tissues made from?
There are several representatives of the flora, whose stems and leaves contain special bast fibers. It is they who go to the manufacture of fabrics. What are these plants that "dress" a person? These include:
- Different types of flax.
- Hemp.
- Kenaf.
- Abaku.
- Yucca.
- Agave.
- Cable car.
- Jute.
- Sidu.
- Sesbania.
- Rami.
- Kendyr.
Most of them belong to tropical species. Flax, sid, hemp and rope grow in temperate latitudes.
Cotton is also an important representative of the flora. Thin white hairs form in its seeds, which form entire downy balls. It is from them that the most common, valuable and excellent in quality fiber of the future fabric is made.
Cotton in nature
Under natural conditions, this culture is very widespread in various forms. Cotton cultivated a man more than 5 thousand years ago. And this is not surprising. After all, 40% of the fabrics obtained in the world are just cotton.
The plant is a fairly tall (up to 200 cm) stems of shrubby form. The leaves are medium-sized, with a dissected beautiful leaf blade. The flower is small, discreet color (yellow, white or cream). After flowering, it changes its colors to red, orange or purple. In its place, a fruit is formed - a box in which seeds ripen.
One fruit can produce about 50 seeds. Moreover, each seed forms on itself up to 15 thousand thin hairs, which are used to obtain tissue. The appearance of the ripened fruit is very interesting: the box opens, and white cotton down balls show out. At this time, there is a harvest of technical culture for processing into fabric.
Life forms
Cotton is a thermophilic, hygrophilous and tender plant. No wonder it is sometimes called the "child of the sun." The following life forms are distinguished for him:
Each of them can be annual, biennial, or perennial. To obtain tissues, a shrubby annual variety is grown. In taxonomy, it belongs to the family Malvaceae.
Application
World cotton production is over 25 million tons annually. It is carried out in 80 countries. The main area of its application, of course, is as a source of high-quality fabric with excellent technical characteristics.
Plants that "dress" a person, of course, include cotton on their list. Everyone knows the excellent quality of cotton clothing, especially if the material is combined with other additives that improve wear and prevent strong wrinkling.
As a technical crop, cotton has been cultivated for a very long time. Previously, only very wealthy people could afford to wear clothes made of this material. Today it is not a luxury item at all , but essential things. Cotton fabrics are durable, beautiful, easily dyed, soft and pleasant to the body, wear-resistant.
For technical purposes
Cotton is also used as the basis for:
- artificial fibers;
- pyroxylin;
- celluloid;
- varnishes;
- dynamite;
- smokeless powder and so on.
Flax in nature
The best plants that “dress” a person include flax in their list. Under natural conditions, there are approximately 330 species of this representative of the flora. The most common is ordinary flax. It is he who is used to obtain fibers.
The culture is a grassy form up to 1 meter in height. The stems are strong, but thin, the leaves are lanceolate, the flower is not large, but of medium size, the color of the corolla is pale blue, almost lilac. In the wild, there are species with bright yellow, white flowers. Flax is a plant (photo can be seen below), which in nature is quite common in temperate latitudes.
The main value of flax is presented in its stem. It is in it that the bast fibers that man releases for his own needs mature. The collection of these stems is made only after they have fully ripened, that is, yellowing.
The plant itself is very unpretentious. It tolerates low temperatures and lack of moisture, is not attacked by pests due to the rather toxic substance contained in the stem and leaves. This makes flax growing very convenient for people.
Application
A person uses not only the stem of this species, but also other parts.
- Flaxseed oil is obtained from flax (medicine, cosmetology, technical purposes).
- Extracts from plants are used in medicine.
- Specialized medical threads, dressings (cotton wool, bandages) are made from flax.
- Fabrics from this plant can be thin and lace, and can differ in extreme strength and roughness (burlap, canvas of ships).
In addition, flax is a plant (the photo clearly demonstrates this) is very tender, therefore from an aesthetic point of view it is also very suitable for growing.