The Earth is host to more than 200,000 documented species of plant life. In turn, our planet depends upon these plants to nurture and sustain all living things.
Plants play a critical role in the complex food web.
Powered by light from the sun, carbon dioxide from the air, and nutrients from the soil, plants pass on this energy to the life forms that consume them. And for the human species, plants bring aesthetic pleasure, delighting the senses with their beauty and variety. This area of the NBII brings together a wide range of botanical resources available on the Web. This NBII site is developed and maintained by the Center for Biological Informatics of the U.S. Geological Survey NBII looks best when viewed with Netscape 4.0 or later and Internet Explorer 4.0 or later.