What To Spot Plantlife – The pair of scientists behind the new research looked at how Earth’s vegetation red edge as viewed by an alien would change over time as plant life evolved and changed. The first green plants, like mosses, produced a very weak vegetation red edge signal. But now, 400 or 500 million years later, modern plants and trees produce a signal that’s about twice as strong. They also feed, house and clothe humans and plenty of other life-forms.
“Our work shows that as plants evolved on Earth, the vegetation signal that reveals their presence became stronger, making older exoplanets really interesting places to look for vegetation,” Kaltenegger said in the statement. The plant starts life as a seed, which germinates and grows into a plant. The mature plant produces flowers, which are fertilized and produce seeds in a fruit or seedpod. The plant eventually dies, leaving seeds which germinate to produce new plants. For example, plants can bend toward a source of light, climb on fences and walls, or respond to touch (Figure 2). Even tiny bacteria can move toward or away from chemicals (a process called chemotaxis) or light (phototaxis). Identifying a landscape or garden plant requires recognizing the plant by one or more characteristics, such as size, form, leaf shape, flower color, odor, etc., and linking that recognition with a name, either a common or so-called scientific name. Plants (genera) in the same family share physical characteristics that can help us identify them. For example, plants in the Asteraceae (daisy) family usually form the shape of a daisy, while those in the Fabaceae (pea and bean) family hold their seeds in a pod such as a pea or bean. By any reasonable examination plants are alive meeting all the conditions that have been set to verify if an object is living. They are composed of cells, require energy and nutrients, grow, respond to their environment, have adapted to their environment, and they reproduce.