What are trees for and what are their benefits?

In nature there are a large number of animal and plant species. The trees are living things that belong to the plant kingdom, have many uses and provide a lot of benefits to humans, mainly by producing oxygen, which is essential for life.

This genus is characterized by the large number of species that exist, which serve as habitat for individuals in nature, provide the oxygen we breathe, serve to purify the air, as food, from here numerous raw materials are extracted for construction, medicine, furniture and of course, also serve to recreate the view.

What is the importance of trees?

Trees are plants whose importance lies in their uses and their main function, because in addition to providing oxygen, providing food and various materials for medicines, construction, without them the land would be different, it would be a total desert.

Trees are plants, which have a myriad of uses. They have different structures, which can be useful in various ways.

Trees in oxygen production

• As part of their life cycle, trees carry out photosynthesis, through this biochemical process they absorb carbon dioxide from the environment.
• This element enters through the stomata of the leaves, these are small holes that form between the cells of the epidermis. After a number of reactions that occur inside them, the trees expel oxygen, a fundamental element for the life and respiration of all living beings on the planet.
• A tree can produce the oxygen that 18 people require for their breathing. Forests function as a plant lung and help the atmosphere to have the conditions that make our planet habitable. This is also known as the main function of trees.

Trees serve to maintain biodiversity

• Each tree can serve as a habitat for a large number of insects and other species, help prevent erosion and are an important part of the water cycle.

• The trees have a strong woody trunk, their height exceeds 3 meters, and supports the ramifications that will shape the crown, which depending on the species can take on different aspects.

The trees provide shade

• The trees provide with their branches and their crown the necessary shade to protect or protect many living beings during the hours of greater intensity of sunlight, for livestock for example they are fundamental.

• They are distributed throughout the land, so they adapted to many types of climate, which is why they present modifications that are observed in their leaves, stems and roots.

• The leaves of the trees can be evergreen, in this case, they will fall and be constantly renewed throughout their life. They can also be expired, that is to say that during part of the year they will all fall and then they will be renewed, just as it happens in the climatic seasons or periods of drought.

• This is a mechanism for the tree to withstand conditions that may be adverse, mainly related to the availability of water.

Trees serve in the production of organic matter

• The leaves of the trees that fall to the ground, help to recover it, from the organic matter that is generated during its decomposition, until it is transformed into humus that with its nutrients is essential within the cycle of the elements in nature.

Trees are used for forage

• Trees are usually used to feed herds of animals, from their leaves forage is obtained that provides a quantity of nutrients.
• Forage can provide necessary proteins for animals. This resource is very valuable when there are shortages of other foods. For this you can use the silage technique. An example of this is the tree whose scientific name is Acacia albida, very common in Africa.

Trees are used to obtain oils

• There are numerous species of trees whose leaves and trunk can be used in infusions or for the extraction of essential oils.

Trees in construction

• Trees have been used since ancient times to provide the wood with which homes of many types have been made. The wood of the trees is also used in the manufacture of boats, furniture and tools of many types, which have been very useful and which allowed the survival and later the comfort of human beings.

Trees serve to provide heat

• Traditionally, the wood of the trees has been used to obtain firewood that helps to keep the environments comfortable in cold seasons, it has also been used for cooking.

• In many towns, trees and firewood are the main source of fuel. The use of this allows also to provide light, to heat water, it is used in rituals as an important part of social aspects.

Trees provide food

• Many trees produce edible fruits that are cultivated by man as food: avocado, apples, medlars, mangoes, soursop, peaches, cherry, cocoa, walnuts among others. These are called fruit trees.

• Each of its parts can be used according to the species and the absence of toxic substances, as part of the diet of many families, due to the content of vitamins, proteins and usable oils.

Trees serve in decoration

•  Trees and other plants are used in projects for gardens, parks and squares since they allow, thanks to their diversity of flowers and foliage, to obtain colorful and inspiring spaces that favor recreation.
• In this sense, there are millenary cultures such as the Japanese and the Chinese that have adapted many species into beautiful specimens of small height, maintaining their proportion and elegance, these trees planted in pots and of incomparable elegance are known as bonsai.

Trees provide the pulp for paper

• Thanks to the wood of the trees and its cellulose content, the pulp can be obtained, which is used to make paper. About 15 trees are used to produce 1000 kilograms of paper.

Trees provide healing substances

• Trees have been used since ancient times by our ancestors as remedies for different conditions, due to the substances or active principles that they contain in their parts.

• Although many of these substances are currently obtained by the pharmacological industry through chemical processes, these properties are still recognized in trees.

• Example: Kamala, this tree is used in India to combat diseases that originate from the action of parasites.

• Rauwolfia, is a genus that includes medicinal trees, which can be found in the tropics, in Africa and other countries, being able to provide alkaloids and other substances that help to treat hypertension, also with a sedative effect, in addition to purgative, to combat the scabies and insecticide.

Trees in the fight against stress and other diseases

• Not only for the tranquility that they can provide, taking walks through the forests, it is used in countries such as Japan to reduce the hormonal factors linked to this disease, these walks through the forest of trees decrease the levels of cortisol, a substance linked to stress.

• It improves the presence of lymphocytes and anti-cancer proteins, favors the appearance of pleasant emotions.

Trees supply colorants or cosmetics

Some trees are used because they allow the extraction of natural dyes, an example of this is the tree whose scientific name is Caesalpinia sappan whose dye is red.

The different parts of the trees can be used in the tincture, leaves, roots, barks, flowers, seeds, pods, berries.

What are the parts of a tree?

Regardless of the type to which the trees belong, they have:

• The roots: It is the part of the tree that forms and grows under the ground, its main function is the absorption of water and nutrients by which the tree feeds, it also helps to support the tree by providing strength and grip.

• The trunk: It is the thick part of the tree, from which the branches and crown of the tree are supported.

• The branches: It is the part that grows above the ground leaving a part of the trunk uncovered, the branches next to the leaves shape the top of the tree.
• The leaves: They are small, generally flattened organs through which trees and plants carry out photosynthesis.

Why do treetops change color?

The presence of different pigments in the leaves allows color changes to be evident in the leaves, these biochromes, flavonoids, carotenoids, and of course chlorophyll, are necessary to absorb light and carry out photosynthesis.

The presence of different shades of colors in the tops of our trees is quite a spectacle of nature.

Conclusion

Finally, we must limit that trees, as we have seen, help the environment in countless ways, through their sap or pigments, flowers, by photosynthesis and the accumulation of substances in different fruits, without forgetting the production of oxygen and the habitat. to many species. Its importance is very wide since it covers both economic, botanical and biological aspects.

Since ancient times, the fruit of many trees has been used as a form of barter or payment, for example the cacao tree Theobroma cacao , or food of the gods from whose fruit the delicious chocolate originates.

Avoiding indiscriminate logging is an intelligent solution to problems that due to lack of awareness we have caused to the climate and ecosystems, such as the greenhouse effect, global warming and water scarcity.

Recycling is a way to promote caring for the environment. Trees are a miracle of nature that we must conserve.