Seed pods are world travelers Let’s talk about cellulose! I know
you want to! Cellulose is one of the most important organic
compounds on earth, and it is made only by plants. It’s what we
call a polysaccharide, in that it consists of chains of zillions
of molecules of glucose, a really “simple” sugar, all strung
together in a line. The individual molecules of glucose are
linked together in a very important way, resulting in a strand
of cellulose. (Pay attention, now!) There is a slightly
different way in which these glucose molecules can be linked
together…and that would give us starch. Starch is easily broken
down and used as an energy source by practically any critter you
can think of, but cellulose? NO WAY. Cellulose is one of the
most durable molecules in nature, and it is vitally important to
plants as a structural component of their cell walls. (There are
a variety of microorganisms that can digest cellulose, of
course. People like to think that termites enjoy eating wood…but
it is actually some very s