Dear Lily,

You and I are both animals with backbones, so we have lots in common. Our ways of being alive look similar. We have hearts to pump blood. We have brains that help us think and communicate.

But plants don’t have the same body systems we do.

I talked about your question with my friend Michael Knoblauch. He’s a plant scientist at Washington State University.

He told me plants are seriously good at being alive. In fact, 80% of all the living things on Earth are plants.

“Go out in the forest and look around,” Knoblauch said. “You might see birds and … » More …