Plants are the basis upon which all other life depends. Humankind relies, directly or indirectly, upon the plant kingdom for oxygen, fuel, medicines, food and micronutrients, clothing and building materials as well as for many other necessities. Moreover, since prehistory, people have not only drawn upon plants for their material value but have also imputed to the plant world sentiments which are religious, aesthetic, poetic and moral. As indicated by Mendel's hereditary experiments with peas or Pasteur's development of the germ theory of disease using yeast, plants play a significant role in the development of human knowledge.

However, the world's wetlands, island, coastal and desert floras, forests and grasslands are rapidly dwindling before human expansion. Trees are dying because of a disruption of cellular photosynthesis caused by air pollutants, which may affect food plants in the foreseeable future. If the current mass extinction of plant species continues, 25-50 percent of the world's present biodiversity will be extinct in the next generation.

-Frank J. Lipp, Ph.D.