First Children Encyclopedia

Cushion growth It’s not just animals that need to wrap up warm – plants do too. Purple saxifrage has lots of tiny, overlapping l ...

Deciduous trees lose their leaves in winter. These trees need weather patterns that are neither too hot nor too cold, and with s ...

Caterpillars – and many other insects – chew on leaves. That’s their food. Birds hunt caterpillars, especially in spring when th ...

Tropical rainforests are rich habitats for a huge variety of plants and animals. Enter a hot, damp, and shady world. Rainforests ...

Cloud forest In mountainous areas, rainforests may be so high that they’re cloaked in clouds. The heavy moisture encourages lush ...

Most plants grow from the top, but grass grows from the bottom. This means it can grow back if it’s eaten, or if it is flattened ...

Sugar is produced from sugar cane, a giant tropical grass. Maize is used for all sorts of food products, including tortillas. Wh ...

Lady’s bedstraw produces tiny, star- shaped flowers. Field scabious can produce some 2,000 seeds per plant. Clover is useful to ...

From flower to seed Dandelions are frequently seen in meadows, as they have a way of spreading their seeds that is incredibly su ...

During the dry season in the savanna, the only reliable place to find water is at a water hole. It can be a busy place. At the w ...

A never-ending thirst Animals visit a water hole frequently, especially elephants. Elephants have to drink about 200 litres (53 ...

Animals survivors Few plants can survive in the desert and so many animals are meat eaters. Many deserts are also so hot that a ...

Plant survivors It is very difficult for plants to survive without much rainfall. The cactus is a clever plant because it collec ...

Walk up a mountain and you’ll find that the habitat begins to change the higher you go. It also gets harder to breathe. Life in ...

Mountain daisy These bloom in their thousands across alpine meadows. Rock spiraea Creamy- white flowers form dense mats over roc ...

A large cave will take thousands of years to form. From insects to bats, many animals find a cave a good place to live. Web bed ...

A troglodyte. Cool caves A success story Cockroaches are among the most successful of all living things, having inhabited Earth ...

The flowing current From small beginnings Many rivers start life as fast- flowing streams. It is often a barren beginning, but p ...

The Nile, in Africa, at 6,695 km (4,160 miles).^177 Got it! Many birds make a slow- moving river their hunting ground, snatching ...

A freshwater lake is a large body of standing water. Lakes support a wide variety of life, especially at their edges. Still wate ...