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Showing posts from May, 2019

How Plants Make Food

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Making Food What is photosynthesis? Photosynthesis is the process by which plants make food from light, water, nutrients, and carbon dioxide.What is chlorophyll? Chlorophyll is the green pigment, or color, found in plants that helps the plant make food. P lants are very important to us.  All food people eat comes directly or indirectly from plants.   Directly from plants: Indirectly from plants: For example, apples come from an apple tree.  The flour used to make bread comes from a wheat plant. Steak comes from a cow, and we all know that cows are animals, not plants, right?  But what does the cow eat?  It eats grass and grains—PLANTS! So all the foods we eat come from plants.  But what do plants eat?  They make their own food! What Do Plants Need to Make Food? Plants need several things to make their own food.  They need: chlorophyll, a green pigment found in the leaves of plants (see the layer of chlorophyll in the cross-section of a leaf below) light (either natur

Different Parts of Plants

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Plant Parts What Do Different Plant Parts Do? Plant parts do different things for the plant. Roots Roots act like straws absorbing water and minerals from the soil. Tiny root hairs stick out of the root, helping in the absorption. Roots help to anchor the plant in the soil so it does not fall over. Roots also store extra food for future use. Stems Stems do many things. They support the plant. They act like the plant's plumbing system, conducting water and nutrients from the roots and food in the form of glucose from the leaves to other plant parts. Stems can be herbaceous like the bendable stem of a daisy or woody like the trunk of an oak tree. A celery stalk, the part of celery that we eat, is a special part of the leaf structure called a  petiole . A petiole is a small stalk attaching the leaf blade of a plant to the stem.In celery, the petiole serves many of the same functions as a stem. It's easy to see the "pipes" that conduct water and nutrients in a sta