Biology
Plants & their parts
Root, stem, leaf, and flower: every part of a plant has its own job.
What you need first
A tree, a blade of grass, and a sunflower look very different. Still, almost all plants are made of the same basic parts, and each part does a certain job. Once you know what the root, stem, leaf, and flower are for, you understand how a plant lives.
Root and stem
The root sits in the soil. It holds the plant firmly in place and takes up water and nutrients from the ground. The stem grows upward. It supports the plant and carries the water from the root all the way up to the leaves, like a pipe.
Leaf and flower
The leaf is the plant's little factory. Here it catches the sunlight and uses it, together with water and air, to build its food. Experts call this process . The flower is there for reproduction: its colors and its scent attract insects that carry the pollen from flower to flower. Fruits and seeds form from it afterward, and new plants grow from those.
Plants as the base of food
Plants are special because they feed themselves. They do not need to eat anything; instead they build their food from light, water, and air. That is why they stand at the start of almost every : animals eat plants, and other animals eat those animals.
Exercises
0 of 6 solvedTime to try it yourself. You can't break anything, every attempt counts.
Which part of the plant takes up water from the soil?
In which part of the plant does the plant make its food from light?
The root takes up the water, the stem carries it upward. How many of the four basic parts bring the water from the bottom to the top this way?
Match each plant part to its job.
How many basic parts does the plant in the tutorial have: root, stem, leaf, and flower?
Put the basic parts of a sunflower in their order from bottom to top.
- 1leaf
- 2stem
- 3flower
- 4root
Where this leads