Plants

Plants are indeed astounding. They not only feed us and are crucial for water cycle but also providematerial for our attire, shelter, fuel, and written communication. They also take care of our cosmeticneeds. Whenever we suffer from a disease they can come to our rescue. Aren’t they really prodigious. But unfortunately, like our usual self we hardly understand them and often areconfounded with many doubts. Let’s face some of them.

Plants and Light:

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Why are most of the plants green in color?

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Why is the upper surface of a leaf greener than the lower surface?

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How do non-green plants like croutons synthesize food when they do not have the chlorophyll?

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Some leaves are half yellow and half green, which part of such a leaf contains chlorophyll?

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How do plants make their food on a cloudy day?

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What is the effect of ultraviolet rays on plants?

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Do plants take oxygen at night for their respiration?

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Is the amount of carbon dioxide taken in by plants during daytime is equal to that released bythem during night?

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When stomata closes during night how do plants respire?

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Can plants grow in light other than sunlight e.g. from an electric lamp?

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Will keeping a plant in light for a longer duration or for a period of 24 hours make anydifference to its growth?

Photosynthesis is the name of process, which enables plants to collect energy for their growth fromair and sunlight. It is a enzyme catalyzed photochemical reaction. Photochemical reactions arechemical reactions, which require the presence of light to take place. Light is an essential reactantfor such reactions. Intensity of light controls the speed of such reactions, lesser the intensity of lightslower the reaction. When the intensity of sunlight is low, as on a cloudy day, photosynthesis isslower but it does occur Light is electromagnetic radiation in a certain frequency range, whether it is from the Sun or an electric lamp. They differ from each other in their intensity and the distribution of wavelengthsin their spectrum (colour composition of its spectrum). Photosynthesis can indeed take place in thelight emitted by an electric lamp if has enough intensity of red and blue light. This is so because it isonly the light having wavelengths/frequency corresponding to blue and red colors, which participates actively in the photosynthesis. One can than understand the reason why most plants aregreen. A substance, which appears green in white light, absorbs red and blue parts of the white lightand reflects the green light to our eyes. The photosynthetic machinery of a plant is located in anorganelle known as chloroplasts. The green colour is due to the presence of a particular greencoloured organic compound known as chlorophyll in them. Because the upper surface of a leavefaces the sunlight there is a larger concentration of chloroplasts on it, this surface of a leavetherefore appears darker green.But the apparent colour of a plant (like any other object) does not necessarily reveal itscomposition of pigments. Thus even though croutons do not appear green in colour it does notimply that they do not contain any chlorophyll. The color due to chlorophyll molecules can be veryeasily camouflaged by molecules which reflect light of a different wavelength composition. Plantsalso produce carotenoid pigments, which range from lemon yellow to tomato red and anthocyanins,which range from palest pink through red to flamboyant purple. Carotenoids also absorb light for photosynthesis and are frequently found in chloroplasts. Thus the non green croutons can also photosynthesize and an apparently yellow coloured leaf is not devoid of chlorophyll molecules-- itis just due to the presence of some yellow or red carotenoids also in the chloroplasts that it appearsyellow rather than green.The misconception that plants respire only during night is very common amongst most of us. Respiration, as some of us may know, is the process by which a living being processes

molecules like glucose etc. to get energy to drive many other biochemical reactions necessary for growth of the organism. It often requires oxygen as a reactant and carbon dioxide is the product.But photosynthesis and respiration are not the only two active processes that take place in a plant. A plant synthesizes vitamins, proteins, cellulose, lipids and chlorophyll etc. etc. almost all the time for its growth and security. All these compounds are synthesized from the inputs – carbon dioxide,oxygen, nitrogenous compounds, phosphorus and many trace elements like magnesium and iron.Obviously all the carbon dioxide taken in during the day is not given off in the night. Respiration isactive all through, whether it’s day or night, even when the photosynthesis becomes very slow inthe night. Thus plants act as a nett sink of carbon on the Earth’s surface. Even when a large proportion of stomata closes at night, plants do take in oxygen through the ones still open. Inaddition plants can indeed take up oxygen through other surface structures in the green stems or fruits.The duration of night and day is not the same all over the Earth. Thus there are places wherethe duration of day may be as much as 23 hours a day during a particular period of the year. Plantsdo grow in such places also as they do in caves where there is little or no sunlight. Various kinds of plants have evolved to survive in different physical conditions of environment. Thus while some plants like beets, lettuce or clover can survive only after many days of long hours of sunshine, shortday plants occur in regions where the duration of the day is usually short. Usually plants can adaptto a change in duration of light. Ultraviolet, and to a certain extent the shorter wavelengths of lightas well, tend to promote the formation of anthocyanins. They can also affect the phototropic phenomena, and can check the stem elongation by inactivating certain growth-promoting hormones.

Plants and Water

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How can plants attract clouds?

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Why do drops of water appear on the leaves of a peepul tree in the morning?

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How does the water from the soil reaches the top of a coconut tree and get inside the coconut?

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How does water rise up in plants against the gravity of Earth?

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Why do leaves of some plants droop at sunset?

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Why does a sensitive plant like mimosa folds its leaves on getting any type of little stimulus?

Water does indeed rise up the body of a plant regardless of its height. The mechanism of this phenomenon has engaged the attention of scientists for very many years. However, there seems to be some consensus on this issue now. The water in a plant is pushed up by the root pressure and isalso pulled up due to transpiration (evaporation of water from its leaves ). A plant has an intricatenetwork of veinlets through which water is transported from the soil through the roots to its body.The roots because of osmosis absorb water. Cells in the roots of a plant accumulate many organic