What plant is the most useful one??

[metaquantum]

What plant is most useful? What plant would we benefit from having the most of?

If we chould have only one plant on the earth, wich one should it be?

[Physics is Phun]

wheat maybe?

[Danger]

I'd vote for a fusion power plant.

[metaquantum]

I'd vote for a fusion power plant.

i said plant, not power plant

an organic natural thing that usually grows out of the earth...

[Danger]

Oh, you mean one of those things that less-evolved people eat...

[theCandyman]

I was actually thinking of a power plant when I first read this as well.

[Evo]

Does this include trees, vines, and bushes?

[Jimmy Snyder]

Does the word 'ecosystem' mean anything to you?

[hypatia]

My plant of choice would be Amaranth, you can eat all of it, root,leafs and the grain can be made into breads.
You can read more about it here.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranth

[Chi Meson]

Silly to have one plant left, but that's the way things are going. I'd consider grapes. The leaf is edible, but even better it's a good food for livestock. The vines are really useful, flexible and strong.

I'd miss tomatos,though. MAybe if we engineered their vines to be stronger, I dunno. Such a sad question.

[Crosson]

The most useful plant I can think of is cannabis. It is well-suited to many puposes i.e. cloth, paper, plastic, fiber, cosmetics, medicine, food production, and it grows in a very practical way.

The first time the phrase billion-dollar was applied to any US agricultural crop:

New Billion-Dollar Crop Popular Mechanics, February 1938

American farmers are promised new cash crop with an annual value of several hundred million dollars, all because a machine has been invented which solves a problem more than 6,000 years old. It is hemp, a crop that will not compete with other American products. Instead, it will displace imports of raw material and manufactured products produced by underpaid coolie and peasant labor and it will provide thousands of jobs for American workers throughout the land. The machine which makes this possible is designed for removing the fiber-bearing cortex from the rest of the stalk, making hemp fiber available for use without a prohibitive amount of human labor. Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody "hurds" remaining after the fiber has been removed contains more than seventy-seven per cent cellulose, and can be used to produce more than 25,000 produces, ranging from dynamite to Cellophane.

[Evo]

I'd have to say corn, almost 600 products including tires, fuel, starch, food, sweetener, oil, plastics, cloth, etc...

http://www.ilcorn.org/Corn_Products/corn_products.html

[fourier jr]

i nominate hemp & bamboo

[Mk]

I'd say chicken. Very tasty :smile:

[Evo]

The most useful plant I can think of is cannabis. It is well-suited to many puposes i.e. cloth, paper, plastic, fiber, cosmetics, medicine, food production, and it grows in a very practical way.

The first time the phrase billion-dollar was applied to any US agricultural crop:"New Billion-Dollar Crop Popular Mechanics, February 1938"

:rofl: :rofl: 1938! I guess we are still waiting for this to happen? :biggrin: What ever happened to this machine? Was it ever used anywhere in the world? Or was it a pipe dream?

Anyway, I'm sticking with corn.

[chemisttree]

The answer is obviously barley. Its edible and can be converted into the best stuff! (Beer and Scotch)

[Evo]

The answer is obviously barley. Its edible and can be converted into the best stuff! (Beer and Scotch)And with enough beer and scotch, not much else matters. :tongue:

[Chi Meson]

The answer is obviously barley. Its edible and can be converted into the best stuff! (Beer and Scotch)

This is the real reason why I was thinking grapes:blushing:

[Art]

A money tree would be useful :)

[out of whack]

A money tree would be useful :)

Don't be silly, you cannot eat money. What you really need is a spaghetti tree (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_tree).

[Art]

Don't be silly, you cannot eat money. What you really need is a spaghetti tree (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaghetti_tree).Good idea and you could nourish it with dehydrated water :rofl: A report on television about the invention of dehydrated water was broadcast, claiming that all you had to do was shine ultraviolet light onto a powder and it turned into water. The programme included a wonderful demonstration featuring a tap suspended from threads, with a funnel full of the powder on top. A strong light shone into the funnel and a constant stream of water came out of the tap, although it was not physically connected to anything except the threads. Photographs were also shown of an accident in southern France where a lorry-load of the stuff had overturned, causing massive flooding. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A516791

[light_bulb]

blue-green algee.

[Art]

blue-green algee.Which is not a plant. They're a phylum of bacteria.

[metaquantum]

hey, you know what you would never ever never ever ever NEVER NEVER EVER NEVER guess??

i was actually beeing serious with this thread. im doing a project at home, (i have a lot of spare time) but i cant make up my mind on wich plant is the most useful, for most purposes....

any serious replies would be greatly appreciated... and if i get done with it anytime this year, i could post it here on the forums, for you to read. if youre interested... thanks

(i propably should have mentioned this in the first post, but i got so hung up on the plant)

[Evo]

It's corn. I can't think of another plant that is currently being used for more things.

http://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=1311702&postcount=12

No one ever believes Evo. :frown:

[Crosson]

What ever happened to this machine?

1938 is the same year that it became illegal to cultivate hemp in the united states.


Was it ever used anywhere in the world?

Every industialized nation besides the USA uses hemp.


Or was it a pipe dream?

It is impossible to tell, because the legal issues make it difficult to continue research. From 1930 to 1938 the hemp industry doubled each year and now it is the only plant whose illegal status is not do to it being an "invasive species". I urge everyone to read the facts about this senseless prohibition, it is a story that the government does not want you to hear.

but i cant make up my mind on wich plant is the most useful, for most purposes.

I would suggest aloe, it is a medical plant that can help heal burns and abrasions.

[Evo]

Every industialized nation besides the USA uses hemp. That's why it makes no sense why this "miracle machine" never appeared anywhere.

It is impossible to tell, because the legal issues make it difficult to continue research. From 1930 to 1938 the hemp industry doubled each year and now it is the only plant whose illegal status is not do to it being an "invasive species". I urge everyone to read the facts about this senseless prohibition, it is a story that the government does not want you to hear.It's just another conspiracy theory that makes no sense.

[denverdoc]

phytoplankton! You need to consider all aspects of usefulness, and I would say the oceans need to be considered first, and terrestrial life secondly.

[Art]

Types of plants would be grasses which includes wheat, rice, corn, barley, oats, sugar, sorghum and millet. Between them they account for 50% of humankinds calorie intake but if you have to specifically pick one of them I'd go for Evo's corn which has many other uses besides just food.

[Moonbear]

I think I'll go along with Evo's corn suggestion, mainly because with only one plant left, I'd want something that could sustain some livestock (not that they'd be in the best of health with only one plant for their entire diet, but enough to get me some meat to go with the corn). And when I got bored of nothing but steak, milk and corn, it would be time to set up the still.

[ceranolas]

roses people, just roses.

[baywax]

The money tree. Oops, Art got that.

How about the fabled "Tree of Knowledge".

Seriously, there is the possiblilty to hybrid a plant with every other known plant on the planet.

In fact they used to hybrid tomato plants with cannibus plants so they could hide them in a crop of tomatos.

Anyone for a BLTHC?

[HungryChemist]

Okay, it's gotta be Coffee for me!!

[Ivan Seeking]

Soybeans..........

[Ouabache]

marine algae (http://www.ecology.com/dr-jacks-natural-world/most-important-organism/index.html) - they produce between 70 and 80% of the oxygen we breath. Definately a keeper..
denverdoc good job mentioning phytoplankton.