Hey, it's hemigraphis. How you doing? I hope
you're hungry.
When you invite a plant to
dinner you don't have to do much
cooking. That's because
plants make their own food through
photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the
process that plants use to take light
energy from the sun
and convert it into another form of
energy, sugar. The sugar a plant makes can
be stored and used later for growing,
reproduction, fighting off diseases and
insects, or recovering from extreme
weather conditions.
Photosynthesis takes place on a cellular
level.
Within a cell plants have specialized
structures called chloroplasts,
where photosynthesis takes place. Think of the chloroplast like the kitchen of the
plant cell.
This is where all the food gets made.
Chloroplasts contain the green pigment
chlorophyll
which absorbs light energy from the sun.
Light energy is just one of the three
ingredients needed to make sugar.
Plants also need water and carbon
dioxide. Water is taken in through the roots
and carbon dioxide enters through
special pores in the leaf called stoma.
With these three ingredients: water,
carbon dioxide, and light energy, the
plant can start producing sugars.
The actual process is very complex, but
simply put, the plant uses parts of the
water molecule and energy from the sun
to link together carbon atoms
contributed by the carbon dioxide
molecule
to make sugar and lucky for us a
byproduct of photosynthesis
is oxygen. Even though plants can make
their own food
they also need to eat. Just like animals, plants need to break down food into
energy to function.
The process used to break down sugar and
release energy
is called respiration. You can think of
respiration as the opposite of
photosynthesis.
The process of respiration also takes
place on a cellular level
in a structure called the mitochondria.
The next time you have a picnic in the park
just look around all of those green
plants are photo synthesizing
and having lunch with you.
