Can Plants Be Helpful in space

Summary
Scientists at the Kennedy space center think that plants made be beneficial in long term space flights. They have now been studying the effects of plants that grow in micro gravity  The largest hope is that plants could easily recycle CO2 into O2 and also provide a food source for Astronauts on the mission. Developments like this will become important as Nasa sets its sights towards mars and other missions in deep space. Experiments conducted on the space station have shown positive results for the project. If plants do truly prove beneficial scientists still have some major engineering problems ahead of them. Plants would have to grow at different light levels and extra water would be needed to keep the plants alive.
Connection
The properties of plants such as photosynthesis look beneficial to long term space missions.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/plant_habitat.html