Copper oxide (CuO) vegetable sponges with mesoporous structure were successfully prepared from pine tree needles cellulose as templates. The sample was characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and nitrogen absorption-desorption. In the performance test, the obtained CuO vegetable sponges showed great antibacterial activities, as good as penicillin and kanamycin, especially towards Streptococcus faecalis. They also displayed active photocatalytic degradation of rhodamine B molecules in aqueous solution. Electrochemical data demonstrated that the CuO vegetable sponges were capable of delivering a specific capacitance of 440 F g(-1) at a current density of 1 A g(-1) and offered good specific capacitance retention of 95.1% after 1,000 continuous charge-discharge cycles even at 5 A g(-1).