1. INTRODUCTION
- Plants are living things that perform three life processes: nutrition, interaction and reproduction.
- Plants are very important because they give us the oxigen we need to live.
- Plants also give us: food, medicine and clothes.
- Plants can be different sizes, shapes and colours.
2. PARTS OF PLANTS
All plants have leaves, stems and roots.
- ROOTS: absorb water and minerals that the plant needs to grow. They also fix the plant to the ground.
- STEMS: carry water and minerals from the roots to the rest of the plant. They also support the plant.
- LEAVES: use sunlight to make food for the plant.
3. PHOTOSYNTHESIS: PLANT NUTRITION
Plants make their own food. To do this they need: water, minerals, light and energy from the sun, and carbon dioxide.
Plants make food in their leaves. This process is called Photosynthesis.
- Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air through small holes in their leaves.
- They use energy from the sun and carbon dioxide mix with water, minerals and sunlight to make food.
Water + Minerals + Sunlight + CO2 (Carbon dioxide) = Food + Oxigen (O2)
REMEMBER: Photosynthesis is produced ONLY during the day (because at night there is no sunlight).
During this process, the plant expulses OXYGEN to the air.
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4. RESPIRATION
Plants are also living things, so they need to breathe.
During this process, plants take in oxygen (O2) and expulses Carbon Dioxide (CO2) to the air. Take in: tomar.
REMEMBER: the process of Respiration is produced during THE DAY and AT NIGHT.
There are many different types of plants. We can classify them in different ways.
A) We can classify plants according to their size (por su tamaño):
- Grasses: they have a soft stem. They are thin, flexible and usually short.
- Bushes: they have a thick hard stem with low branches.
- Trees: they have one thick, hard stem called a trunk. They are the tallest plants and have high branches. They can be deciduous (de hoja caduca) or evergreen (de hoja perenne).
- Deciduous Trees: they lose their leaves in autumn and winter. Examples: oak tree (roble), beech tree (haya), etc.
- Evergreen Trees: they keep their leaves all year round. Examples: pine tree (pino), fir tree (abeto), palm tree (palmera), etc.
B) We can also classify plants by how they reproduce:
FLOWERING PLANTS
Many plants have flowers that help them to make seeds inside fruits to reproduce: flowering plants.
- Plants that use seeds to reproduce: some flowering plants produce fruits with seeds inside to reproduce. These flowering plants are called angiosperms: roses, cherry trees, blackberry bushes, rice or wheat.
- Other flowering plants have very small flowers and don'r produce fruit. Their seeds develop inside cones. These plants are called gymnosperms. Examples: evergreen trees, for example pine tree (pino), fir tree (abeto), etc.
NON-FLOWERING PLANTS
But some plants do not use flowers to reproduce. These plants are called non-flowering plants.
These plants don't have flowers and cannot produce seeds. They produce spores to reproduce. There are two types of non-flowering plants:
- Ferns: have spores under their leaves.
- Mosses: have spores inside capsules.
