A worm is a long, creeping animal, with a soft, often segmented body. They don't have legs but instead are covered in hairs or bristles that help them to move. They breathe through their skin, which must remain moist to absorb oxygen from the air.
They've existed for about 600 million years. There are about 34,000 different types of worm; many are so small you wouldn't be able to see them without a microscope!
Worms are hermaphrodite, which means they don't need another worm to reproduce. They lay their eggs, which hatch as little worms. Worms can live for up to 10 years.
Worms eat their own weight in organic waste, soil and minerals and excrete their own weight in castings daily, which makes compost and enriches the soil. One acre of worms can break up about 50 tonnes of soil. They don't eat living plant tissue, and so don't hurt plants either. They truly are a gardener's best friend! Some people even keep them as pets, feeding them on kitchen scraps just so the worms can make them lots of lovely compost for their gardens.

What is pollination?
Pollination takes place when pollen lands on the stigma of a plant. It then travels down to the ovary and it's here that the ovules are fertilised. Most plants have flowers with the male and female parts present in each flower. Mostly, plants rely on insects, such as bees, to take the pollen from the anthers to the stigma.

Pollination by insects
An insect can pollinate flowers accidentally when the pollen is rubbed off the body of the insect. Plants can produce nectar within flowers, a sugary liquid, which many insects feed on. Pollen is a useful source of protein for some insects, such as bees. Insects are attracted to the flower by scent, colours and nectar. They carry pollen from flower to flower, while collecting nectar and pollen for themselves. After pollination, the plant produces a seed, which mostly grows protected inside the plants' ovaries.
It's not always insects that pollinate the flowers; plants may use the wind, birds or even bats as pollinators! With wind-pollinated plants - such as grasses, cereals and some trees - the flowers are very simple, with no bright colours or nice smells as they don't need to attract the insects. These plants have both male and female reproductive parts and they make a lot of pollen. This is why a pollen allergy is called 'hay fever'.

Photosynthesis
Most plants are really lucky - they don't have to go out shopping for their food or spend time cooking it. They just sit around in our gardens waiting for sunshine and then they make their food themselves.

Plants
They use the sunlight and the green in their leaves to make sugars from carbon dioxide (which they breathe in through their leaves during the day) and water. This sugar is then used to give the plant energy so that it can grow. This process is called photosynthesis and is the most important process on the planet, as many other plants and animals depend on plants to survive. Most of the energy is used to make new plant material, although some of it is stored by the plant for use during the months when there is less sunlight.

During the night, plants breathe in oxygen. This is called respiration. The plant also needs minerals to grow, which the plant takes from the soil where they are dissolved in water. The plant releases any water that it doesn't need into the air through its leaves. This is called transpiration.
Plants are the only living organisms that can make their own food. This is one of the main ways of deciding if something is a plant.