Biology

Photosynthesis

How do plants get their energy?

Animals need energy to grow and reproduce. They get this energy from the plants and animals they
eat. Plants also need energy to grow and reproduce, however plants don’t eat, so they need to get their
energy another way.

What is photosynthesis?

Photosynthesis is how plants get the energy they need to grow and reproduce. They use the light from
the sun, together with carbon dioxide and water to produce sugar (glucose).

Photosynthesis can be described using the following word equation:

carbon dioxide + water + sunlight ---> glucose + oxygen

Photosynthesis can also be written as a chemical equation. The chemical equation is what chemists and
other scientists use:

6 CO2 + 6 H2O + sunlight ---> C6H12O6 + 6 O2

The carbon dioxide needed for photosynthesis to occur comes from the air around the plant. The water
enters the plant through its root system.

Leaves are the primary site of photosynthesis in plants.

Leaves

Characteristics of leaves:

• Enable photosynthesis to occur

• Leaves are the source of all of food on the planet

• Leaves recycle all of the world’s carbon dioxide in the air

• Leaves contain the world’s most abundant enzymes

• Photosynthesis takes place in the chloroplasts inside the leaf cells.

• Chloroplasts contain chlorophyll, a green pigment that takes in energy from the sunlight.

• All green parts of plants are able to photosynthesis because they contain chlorophyll.
Structure of a leaf

Midrib- the central rib of a leaf-it is usually continuous with the petiole

Vein- provide support for the leaf and transport both water and minerals through the leaf and on to the
rest of the plant

Petiole- a leaf stalk; it attaches the leaf to the plant

Lamina- broad, flat part of the leaf. It contains veins. Photosynthesis occurs in the lamina, which has
many green food-making cells.
Inside a leaf

Features of leaves
ROOTS

 Functions:

1) Absorb water and minerals from the soil

 2) Anchor the plant firmly in the ground

3) Some plants store food in their roots

4) Weather condition: During winter/summer- some plants allow their above-ground parts to die.

Only allow the underground parts continue to live.

Roots have a type of cell called a root hair cell- these project out from the root into the soil

Root cells do not contain chloroplast, as they are normally in the dark and cannot photosynthesis

Type of plant cells

Transport

 Plants have 2 systems for the transportation of substances- using 2 different types of transport
tissue.
Xylem Tissue Phloem

Water and minerals What is moved transports food

Transpiration stream Process Translocation