PLANT PARTS

A plant has four basic parts: root, stem, leaf, flower. To have healthy plants, you need to know how each part functions.

ROOT: The main jobs of the root are to anchor and absorb. Roots hold a plant in place while absorbing water and nutrients from the soil. Roots grow into the spaces between soil particles, which is why it is important not to have compacted soil. Roots need water, but many plant roots will rot and die if they are in wet soil for a long time.

STEM: A stem also has two jobs: to transport and support. Water and nutrients that were absorbed by the roots are moved through the rest of the plant via the stem. The sugars made in the leaf through the process of photosynthesis are moved back down the stem and throughout the plant via the stem as well. Stems can be vertical, horizontal, underground, or aboveground, and they support the leaves of the plant.

LEAF: The leaf is the most important part of the plant. This is where the process of photosynthesis happens. Water and nutrients combine with carbon dioxide and sunlight in a chemical reaction to create food for the plant in the form of sugar. This sugar fuels all other life on the planet. An animal that eats plants ingests this sugar and is then able to continue on with its day. When another animal eats that animal, the second animal takes in some of that energy and is able to continue on with its day, and so on.

Two excellent by-products of photosynthesis are water and oxygen, our favorite gas. The more leaves there are on the planet, the more carbon dioxide gets absorbed out of the atmosphere and the more oxygen we have to breathe. A win-win if ever there was one.

FLOWER: Besides being a pretty face, flowers are responsible for plant reproduction. When a bee visits a flower looking for nectar to eat, it picks up a little bit of that flower’s pollen. It then goes to another flower looking for more nectar, and some of the pollen from the first flower falls off into the second flower. The pollen may travel through the flower, fertilizing it. A fertilized flower may turn into a fruit, which is merely protection for the seeds growing inside of it. The seeds can then be planted and grow into another flower, propagating the species.