Plant Parts What is in a plant?

Why are plants important? Plants are essential for life on our planet. They provide all the energy for the ecosystem, because they can get energy directly from sunlight. Humans need plants to breathe, eat, for clothing, medicine, and housing.

What do MOST plants have in common? ALL plants have cell walls & chloroplasts. Most plants have some form of roots, stems and leaves.

Let’s start at the bottom… Roots structures designed to pull water and minerals from whatever material the plant sits on. provide support for plants in the form of an anchor in the soil.

Stems Transport food & water. Act as support structures for the plant. Stores food. Main part of the vascular system of the plant.

Plant Vascular System Just like your body has the circulatory system (Veins, heart, blood, etc) to transport food & water to your cells and waste away from the cells, plants have a vascular system. The main parts are called the xylem and phloem. Picture from http://biology4kids.com/files/plants_main.html

Xylem System of tubes and transport cells that circulates water and dissolved minerals from the roots up to the rest of the plant. Xylem is made of vessels that are connected end to end for the maximum speed to move water around. They also have a secondary function of support. When someone cuts an old tree down, they reveal a set of rings. Those rings are the remains of old xylem tissue, one ring for every year the tree was alive. Picture From http://www.mrcorfe.com/KS4/Edexcel/Biology/B2-3-EnergyFlow/images/Transpiration.jpg Picture from http://biology4kids.com/files/plants_main.html Xylem under an electron microscope. Image from http://www.jic.ac.uk/microscopy/Gallery/data/images1/stem_zinnia_leaf_xylem.jpg

Phloem Pipes or tubes in the plant that transports the sugars and other molecules created by the plant’s leaves r down to the rest of the plant . Picture from http://www.paintthelight.net/BotanyProject/Activities/adaption_plants.htm

Finally…we made it to the leaves. Uses a process known as photosynthesis which uses light to turn carbon dioxide and water into sugar.

Transpiration Transpiration is a process where water is lost as vapor from leaves through the opening of the stomata. The opening and closing of the stomata regulates the rate of transpiration in a plant. Transpiration is similar to perspiration in humans. Both are functions of the organism to regulate body temperature. <http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/module01/images/transpiration.jpg>

References Radar’s Biology for Kids http://biology4kids.com/files/plants_main.html