Body Essay, Research Paper

Plants are the basis of the food pyramid for all living things, even other plants.

They have always been very important to people, not only for food, but also for clothing,

weapons, tools, dyes, medicines, shelter and a great many other purposes. Both humans

and animals benefit from plants. We eat many different types of plants such as fruits and

vegetables. We also use plants for our herbs. Plants are also used to manufacture many

different products such as shampoos, rubber, paper, and camera film. In some countries,

fermented sugar cane is used instead of gasoline.Animals use plants in many different

ways also. They eat many fruits and other plants. Many animals use plants for shelter.

Plants also provide animals with protection from predators. The destruction of different

plants sometimes leads to animals becoming endangered or extinct.The basic structure of

plants consists of roots, stem, leaves, flower and/or fruit or seeds. A flower is the part of

the plant that makes the seeds. The main parts of a flower are the carpels and stamens.

These parts are often found in the center of the flower. There are egg cells in the carpel

and pollen cells in the stamen. All flowers have four basic parts: sepals, petals, carpels,

and stamen. Different flowers have different numbers and shapes of these parts.Most

plants can be divided into one of two general categories: herbaceous or woody plants.

Herbaceous plants have soft stems, while woody plants are tree-like. Herbaceous plants

produce completely new stems each year. The approaching cold weather causes the new

stems to die back to the ground. Some herbaceous plants survive periods of cold by

forming underground bulbs, or tubers used for food storage. Many herbaceous plants

complete their life cycles within one growing season and the whole plant dies, even the

roots. These annuals produce seeds that will form new plants the next year.Land plants

are divided into two groups based on whether they have vascular tissues or not. All

nonvascular plants are placed in one division. There are nine divisions of vascular plants.

These are divided based on whether they form seeds or not.Division Bryophyta -

nonvascular plantSClass – Musci – the mossesDivision Pterophyta – ferns, group of

seedless plantsDivision Coniferophyta – cone-forming seed plantsDivision Anthophyta -

fruit-forming seed plants Class – Monocotyledonae Class – DicotyledonaeChapter

2ROOTSRoots help to anchor a plant in the ground. . Plants generally conform to one of

two root systems, a taproot system or a fibrous root system.. When the plant is grown

from cuttings, a fibrous root system will form.Every root grows a mass of tiny hairs near

its tip to absorb water from the soil. These tiny hairs are called root hairs, and they are

made from cells. They take water to the main root. The main root brings the water to the

main plant. The roots also help hold the plant in the ground.The inside of a root

has four different parts. The epidermis is the outside part. It is like our skin. It protects

the inside parts of the root, like our skin protects us. Plants take in water from the soil

through their roots. The water passes through the vascular rays until it reaches the center

of the root, the stele. This is where the veins are located. The veins are called xylem.

They carry the water and food through the plant. Between the epidermis and the stele is

the fleshy cortex.Land plants are divided into two groups based on whether they have

vascular tissues or not. All nonvascular plants are placed in one division. There are nine

divisions of vascular plants. These are divided based on whether they form seeds or not.

Stems support the plant. They transport vitamins, minerals and water up and down inside

the plant. They also serve as a storage area for plants.There are several different types of

stems such as, woody, herbaceous, stolons, rhizomes, and bulbs. These are described

below. Herbaceous, non-woody, plants have vascular tissues arranged in bundles. These

vascular bundles are either scattered throughout the stem or found in a ring toward the

edge of the stem. The stems of herbaceous plants remain upright because of the structure

of the cells in the stem. The individual cells have rigid walls. . In woody plants, the

phloem is located in a ring near the stem while the xylem is located more to the inside.

The stem also takes on different appearances depending on the season. Springwood cells

occur when water is plentiful. This is when wide xylem cells with thin walls are produced.

During dry weather, new xylem cells are smaller with thicker walls and it is called

summerwood. These changes produce a visible difference in the appearance of the woody

stem. Since one sequence of this occurs each year, the age of a tree can be closely

estimated by counting the “rings.” Heartwood occurs when the xylem becomes clogged, it

can no longer transport water and will take on a dark color. This can be seen in the center

of most trees. Sapwood is the lighter-colored wood in a tree. Even if the cells are no

longer living, they can still function to transport water. An example of a woody plant

would be an oak tree.Rhizomes are grown from thickened, underground stems. Iris plants

are rhizomatous-type plants. They can get overcrowded after growing in the same spot

for a long time. When they don’t have enough space, there are fewer blooms. After the

flowers have bloomed, they need to be cut back to the remaining healthy leaves in order

for it to come back the next year. Then they are replanted below the soil surface.Stolens

are aboveground stems that grow parallel to the soil surface. The strawberry plant

reproduces itself asexually by stolons, which are known as runners. Runner plants develop

from axillary buds on the crown of the mother plant under long-day photoperiodic

conditions of summer. When the days become shorter, the strawberry ceases to make

runners and develops flower buds for the following season. Soon after the daughter plant

reaches the soil, it develops vigorous roots (peg roots) that anchor it to the soil. It can

remain attached to the mother plant for a long time, but it usually is capable of living

independently within three to four weeks. A single mother plant can produce up to 1000

daughter plants in a single season. Bulbs are like “storage tanks”. They help a plant

survive dormant periods when it is too cold or hot for it to flower, and they nourish the

plant during the growing and flowering season. There are three major types of bulbs,

including true bulbs, such as hyacinths, daffodils, and tulips. Iris plants also have bulbs.

After the blooming season is over, bulbs can be left in the ground. Some will, in time,

spread out from their planting position and form new bulbs. This is called “naturalizing.”

After a few years, some of the bulbs need to be dug up and divided to prevent

overcrowding.Leaves are specialized for capturing sunlight for photosynthesis. The blade

of a leaf is attached to the stem by a stalklike petiole. A simple leaf has one blade and one

petiole. In compound leaves, the blade is divided into leaflets on the same petiole.

Animals inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Green plants are the only plants

that produce oxygen and make food, which is called photosynthesis. Photosynthesis

means “putting together with light.” This takes place in chloroplasts, which have

chlorophyll in them. Chlorophyll absorbs the sunlight. From sunlight, green plants

combine carbon dioxide and water to make sugar and oxygen. Green plants use sugar to

make starch, fats and proteins. These are tiny pores called stomata. Stomata are plant

spores, which enable gas exchanges to take, place, and water to vapor to be lost. This has

the benefit of moving water up the plane in a process called transpiration. The pore and

the guard cells make up a single stoma. There may be as many as 6 million per typical

leaf. The area just inside the internal structure of the leaf and below the stoma is the air

space, which brings carbon dioxide very close to the palisade parenchyma tissue. Oxygen

and carbon dioxide enter and leave through the stomata. Plants also sleep at night by

closing their stomata. They cannot make food at this time. When green plants absorb

solar energy, they convert it to chemical energy. This chemical energy aids in the growth

and functions of the plant. When an organism eats the plant, it gets energy to carry out its

processes. Without solar energy, plants could not grow, and life on earth would cease to

exist.Chlorophyll, found in plants, is used to trap solar energy. This solar energy is

import for the separation of H atoms from H2O. When water splits, H2 is released and

built into ATP and NADPH2. O2 is given off, as well, which aids in the respiration of

living organisms. The ATP and NADPH2 produced in the light phase is ready to be used

for the reduction of CO2 to form glucose in the dark phase.The chemical equation for

photosynthesis in green plants:light6CO2 + 12H2O =====? C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 6H20

All life on Earth depends on plants to provide good, shelter, and oxygen

for other living things. Plant reproduction is important to all other life on this planet. The

first step in plant reproduction is called pollination. This occurs when pollen grains, the

male germ cell of a plant, reach the stigma, the female reproductive part of the same

species of plant. Depending on the plant species, a flower can produce male, female, or

both structures. Pollination can also occur within the same flower.Most flowering plants

depend on animals to make the vital pollen-grain delivery. The remaining flowering plants

rely on wind and sometimes splashing raindrops to ferry pollen, but this is a less precise

method. Pollinating animals do the job for a reward: food, usually in the form of nectar.

The female reproductive part of a flower is receptive to pollen only at certain times

of the year. Creatures like insects and birds, which move from flower to flower in search

of food, are a fast and often guaranteed way for plants to distribute their pollen.Both the

male and the female reproductive parts of a plant are in the center of the flower. The

male, pollen-producing part is called the anther, held up by a stalk called a filament. The

entire male part is called a stamen. Teach pollen grain is unique to its species. The female

reproductive part of a plant, the stigma, sits on top of a style, or stalk, which leads to an

ovary at the base. A seed has everything it needs to produce new plants. No seed can

grow with the fruit around it. A seed has to have enough water, good soil, and sunlight.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Wright, Alexandra. Will We Miss Them?. Watertown, MA:

Charlesbridge Publishing, 1992. The Plants. New York, NY, Time Life Books,

1971Sunset Books/Magazines.