Plants and Us
 

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Plant categories

We’ve chosen 10 ‘categories’ to show you just how varied and important the role of plants can be in all walks of life.

Visitors to the Chelsea Flower Show as well as readers of the Eastern Daily Press newspaper voted for the 'poeple's choice' in each category. Attendees at our launch event then chose Wheat as the plant 'that most influences our lives'. Have your say by voting.

 

Plant Categories - "People's Choice" winning plants


English OakEnglish Oak -  is a relatively hard wood, but it is easy to work with when still green. It has been used for thousands of years because it is very resistant to weather and beetles.

 

Horse ChestnutHorse Chestnut - The horse chestnut’s spiky fruits contain large brown seeds, or ‘conkers’.
The first recorded game of conkers was in 1848 and it has been an autumn tradition and playground favourite ever since.

The World Conker Championships are held in Northamptonshire every year.

 

TeaTea - has long been a valuable commodity. It was first imported to Europe in the 17th century and was so vastly expensive that large quantities were smuggled into the country.

India is the largest global producer and consumer of tea today, followed by China, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Indonesia.

 

WheatWheat - provides more nourishment for more people worldwide than any other crop.

In the Western diet we use wheat in bread and pasta, but in many parts of Asia it’s used to make another food staple – noodles.

British farmers grow roughly 16 million tons of wheat every year and export 5–6 million tons making it our biggest export crop.

 

CottonCotton - The fine fibres produced by the cotton plant provide a wide range of fabrics.

It’s no surprise that cotton is widely used in fashion as it is comfortable, strong, absorbent, machine washable, dry cleanable and easy to sew.

More cotton is grown than any other natural fibre in the world, and more is produced than all artificial fibres added together.

 

RoseRose - Many consider the rose to be the ultimate flower – the perfect combination of form and fragrance. There are more than 1000 varieties to choose from today.

 

GarlicGarlic -  is used from the Far East to Europe and Latin America. Its distinctive flavour adds depth to a wide range of savoury dishes.

We don’t really associate garlic with traditional British cooking but the word is derived from the old English ‘gar’, meaning spear, and ‘lac’, meaning leek. Its use in mediaeval times was probably more herbal and medicinal than culinary.

 

PapyrusPapyrus - was probably first used to make paper in Egypt around 4000 BC and is the forerunner of modern paper (the word paper is derived from papyrus).

Papyruses were rolled for storage until a less cumbersome method was found - binding sheets together between hard covers. This was called a codex and was the predecessor of the book.

 

FoxgloveFoxglove -  is a tall herb that produces 20–80 tubular, pinkish-purple flowers on a long spike, called a raceme. It belongs to the

Scrophulariaceae family and is related to toadflax and mullein. The word ‘digitalis’ is from the Latin for ‘finger of a glove’ and refers to the shape of the flowers.

GrassGrass - Football, cricket, golf, horseracing, lawn bowls, field athletics, polo and lawn tennis are very different sports, but all depend on one group of plants - the grasses.

Different sports require different types of grass. Compare the fine grass used in crown green bowls with the tough durable grass used on a horseracing track. Most sports surfaces are seeded with a number of different species and varieties and looking after them is a full-time job.