I hadn't realized trees, plants and plankton/algae were made from metal and glass. When did that happen?
Actually plants are loaded with silica dioxide, rice especially that’s glass. Rice harvesting and processing equipment is constantly being worn down, most grasses contain silica.It’s why grazer animals teeth keep growing for life. Similarly every plant has multiple metals in it phosphorus and potassium and sodium just to name the top three.
I get your point but factually plants are made of glass and metals with some of those metals critical for photosynthesis to even function. Plants are terribly inefficient at using solar energy, humans have improved in that by a factor of 40 or.more. With triple junction wide band gap semiconductors you can get into the 60% range land plants are under 1% only single cell cyanobacteria get above single digits. Duckweed the best freshwater on a.t is in the 5% range under perfect conditions.
They may not be made of metal, but they cover the Earth and transform solar.