Hey Stretch, how’s the weather up there?
Don’t hate me because I’m gorgeous, shorty.
Uh, if by gorgeous you mean sick and pale.
We’re ferns, remember? Low is how we roll.
You belong down here with me!
Maybe you’re meant to be down there. I have
a higher calling!
[sings] Soaring towards the sky like a bird flying high! (coughing)
Okay, you need to cut that out. Both for your
health and my eardrums. I’m calling Mosa.
Mosa Mack! Ferns? Rainforest floor? Bad singing??
We’ll be right there!
Mosa! Over here!
Your friend is squashed between
two rocks.
Don’t you dare move that rock! Look how
slender and glamorous I am!
I'm tall. I'm majestic. I’m--
...about to pass out?
You’re low in energy and clearly not as
green as your friend here.
I’m a green machine! Her leaves have been
yellowing, breaking; she’s having trouble
repairing them, and hasn’t grown recently.
We need to find out how other plants in the
rainforest stay so healthy.
Ooh! Ask the tallest tree in the forest. I
want to be like him!
That’s as good a place as any. 
We’ll start up there.
Up there?
You’ll be fine.
Pardon me, Mr. Tree sir?
You must be Mosa Mack! I heard through the
grapevine that you’d be paying me a visit.
Well, actually it was a cucumber vine...
There’s a fern at the bottom of the forest
floor that’s low on energy and we don’t know why.
We were hoping you could help.
I hope so. After all, we see pretty much everything
up here in the canopy.
The what?
He said "can of pee."
Uh, no. I said “canopy.” As in the top
layer of the forest. Closest to the glorious sun!
We create a cover, or canopy, for the
forest below.
Well that’s not nearly as funny.
How do you guys get your energy?
Just ask the chloroplast in the leaves!
Dullis, magnify that leaf for me.
Welcome to the plant cell!
You’re a plant cell?
Haha no. I’m just one part of the plant
cell.
I make energy for the plant - and sweet rhymes
for the ladies.
Just what we need! Well, the energy that is.
How do you do it?
[sings] Give me 6 water, 6 carbon dioxide.
I take that and look what I do on the inside...
Sunlight as my engine, I can’t wait to
taste- the glucose I make, chuck 6 oxygen as waste!
I’m the chloroplast. Photosynthesis
my task. It’s a blast. And I’m jazzed.
Why I told you? 'Cause you asked.
You couldn’t just tell us?
Hey man, me and all of the other chloroplasts
in all the cells are producing glucose for
the WHOLE plant. When you’ve got a job like
that, all you want to *do* is sing.
Encore! Encore!
Chloroplast, what was the food you said you
make again?
Glucose. You know, sugar. You humans need glucose to live too. 
The food you eat break down into glucose and your cells will use it for energy. You’ll use it for everything:
to repair your cells, to grow. We do too!
That’s exactly what fern needs!
Well we’re in luck, I never leave home without
my trusty bag of sugar.
Hold up, brother. She’s a plant, right?
Well then there’s no need - the chloroplasts
in her cells should be making it for her.
Humans have to eat glucose, but plants evolved
to make it on their own!
We need to make sure Fern has everything she
needs to make glucose. Can you sing that song
again? Can you break it down for us?
I told you everyone loves my rhymes.
[sings] Give me 6 water, 6 carbon dioxide...
I take that and look what I do on the inside...
Six water, six carbon dioxide.
Okay, six bottles of water coming up!
What don’t you have in there?
Hmm...a lava lamp. Oh wait, there it is.
No. Six molecules of water. And we don’t
collect the water with our leaves. We get
it from our roots. Down there.
Down th-
So Fern’s roots can bring her the water.
But what about the carbon dioxide? Where are
we gonna find that?
Well, you could...breathe out.
You breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide as waste. In photosynthesis, we do the opposite.
We use carbon dioxide for photosynthesis
and emit oxygen as waste.
Whoa. Ok, got it! So six molecules of carbon
dioxide, and six molecules of water, right?
That’s right.
Patch me in, Dullis. You read me, Fern? You
need food for energy. Glucose!
Glucose?
Yeah. And to get it, you just need water and
carbon dioxide. Once you’ve got those, your
cells will make all the glucose you need!
Plus you’ll give off oxygen as waste...which
is good, because I need that to live.
Great! Carbon dioxide’s in the air and water’s
in the ground. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet
down here!
But if she’s already getting everything
she needs to make glucose on her own, then
what’s the problem?
I...don’t know. Let’s head back and think
through this!
Thanks guys.
My pleasure, Mosa. Come visit us again in
the canopy -- top layer of the rainforest,
closest to the sun. And don’t forget your
sunscreen!
Dullis, play back Chloroplast’s song. I
want to see if I missed anything.
I do not get paid enough for this.
Give me 6 water, 6 carbon dioxide; I take
that and look what I do on the inside.
Sunlight as my engine, I can’t wait to taste, the glucose I make, chuck 6 oxygen as waste.
Wait a minute. That’s it! The tall trees create a canopy over the rest of the plants in the rainforest.
So?
So look at us now!
Fern, I’ve good news and bad news. The good
news is I’ve figured out how to help you.
You have the water and carbon dioxide,
But you're not getting enough of one key ingredient you need for photosynthesis.
Great! What’s the bad news?
Well, I’m going to have to move these rocks,
but not for the reason I initially thought.
And that means you’ll have to loose some
of that height and learn to love being wide!
