How Do Plants Make Their Own Food?

When was the last time you thought about the tree in the backyard? Many may be unaware that the tree or plant that is constantly supplying us with food is also skilled in its own food system. Let’s know how do plants make their own food.

If the subject of food preparation can be compared to the cooking of daily life, then each plant has its own kitchen. Where they produce food in their own way. He also needs various ingredients in cooking. This huge skill in making food for plants requires heat, it also needs fuel. So, the question remains how do plants make their own food.

Its leaves can be called the food preparation house of plants. And the roots of plants collect the necessary ingredients for making food. The various tissues of the plant deliver these elements to the kitchen, that is, to the leaves.

The rest of the activities are done in the heat of the sun. That cooking requires carbon dioxide as fuel. Oxygen comes out as a by-product at the end of the plant's own process of making these foods.

Xylem and phloem tissue: those in charge of transport

Just as the plant has to deliver the various ingredients of food to the leaves, so the food produced from the leaves has to be supplied to the whole plant body. This is done by two tissues called xylem and phloem.

The xylem tissues do not sit with a specific function but do multiple functions. That is why it is called complex tissue. The word xylem comes from the Greek Xylos. One of the functions of this tissue is to strengthen the stems of plants. Xylem tissue carries water and minerals collected from the roots to the leaves.

Just as the xylem provides water for the raw material for making food, the food produced in the phloem leaves is transported to different parts of the body by the plant. In-plant stems phloem forms transport tissue clusters together with xylem. Phloem tissue is made up of cervical, ganglion, phloem parenchyma, and phloem fibers.

The xylem and phloem tissue together are called vascular bundles. And the way this circulatory system delivers food is called osmosis.

Stomata: Leaf entrance

It is a delicate doorway located on the top and bottom of the leaf. This petiole is surrounded by two guard cells. Below the stomata is a large air chamber. This air cavity is called the sub-stomatal air cavity or breathing cavity.

The opening and closing of the stomata are controlled by the guard cells. The stomata are usually open during the day and closed at night. However, in the case of plants of the genus Kalanchoe pinata, the opposite is true.

It plays an important role in facilitating a number of very important functions of plants, such as perspiration and photosynthesis. Through the stomata, the plant takes in carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sends the produced oxygen to the atmosphere. Through this, the process of respiration of plants is also completed.

Photosynthesis: A recipe for cooking plants

Photosynthesis is the process of chemical synthesis in the presence of sunlight. In a word, the process of making food for plants is called photosynthesis. There are two methods of photosynthesis, oxygenic and anoxygenic.

However, the use of anoxic genic methods is not seen anywhere else except for certain bacteria. Now let us know about the process of making plant food in the process of oxygenic photosynthesis.

how do plants make their own food: All that is required in photosynthesis

1) Carbon dioxide

2) Water

3) Sunlight

In the process of photosynthesis, after the synthesis of sunlight with six molecules of carbon dioxide and twelve molecules of water, one molecule of carbohydrate or glucose, six molecules of water and six molecules of oxygen are produced. The reaction is-

6CO2 + 12H2O + Light Energy C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 6H2O

The amount of carbon dioxide molecules that the plant has absorbed has been converted to oxygen. However, chlorophyll is one of the factors behind the completion of this process. Its location is inside a green plastid called a chloroplast.

Photosynthesis is again divided into two parts. Light stage and dark stage. Even if there is no light in the dark stage, the plant can continue its work, but it needs to be facilitated in the light stage.

Chloroplasts

Chloroplasts are said to be the well-designed structure of plant food production, where the main function of plant food production is accomplished. The location of the chloroplasts is inside the mesophyll tissue of the leaf. The structure of mitochondria and chloroplasts is almost the same.

It has three membrane systems - Outer Membrane, Inner Membrane and Thylakoid Membrane. There is a small space between the outer membrane and the inner membrane, called the intermembrane space.

And the thylakoid membrane folds into a complex shape to form small cells, called thylakoids. Several Thylakoids piles take the shape of a book arranged on a table, collectively called a granum.

These thylakoids in chloroplasts contain large amounts of a pigment called chlorophyll. The chloroplasts and the leaves of the trees look green because of the green color of this chlorophyll.

Chlorophyll

The role of chlorophyll in the organization of plant food production is major. The main function of chlorophyll is to absorb photons from sunlight. When the electrons of chlorophyll absorb photons, their energy levels change and the electrons rise to higher energy levels.

At this time the electrons in the high energy level emit their excess energy in the form of photons and the chlorophylls on the side take that photon. These received photons are again thrown into another chlorophyll in a specific process.

At one stage of the collision, it reaches the reaction center of the photosystem, where a special type of pigment molecule is the primary electron acceptor. Here the oxidation reaction begins as soon as the photon arrives.

As a result of this reaction, the chlorophylls in the reaction center emit electrons instead of photons towards the primary electron receptor. Resulting in electrons being found in contrast to sunlight.

This is how the work of the first stage of food production goes forward. This step is called light reaction, in which the plant produces energy from the photons of sunlight. The next step is called the Dark Reaction, which is the Calvin cycle.

In this step, energy from sunlight is converted to carbon dioxide in a complex process to G3P ​​(Glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate). Plant food glucose (C6H12O6) is then produced by a combination of different processes in the Kelvin cycle. At the same time, oxygen is produced as a by-product. This may be the answer to the question, how do plants make their own food?

Plant food preparation and our existence

The sun plays an important role in this whole process. This is because the energy that the plant consumes in the production of glucose is more than the energy of the glucose produced.

The world still survives because of the food production of plants. Because if the plant stops producing food, the plant itself will be destroyed first. Second, the destruction of plants will result in the destruction of humans or other animals as well, because the living world depends on plants to manage respiration.

Most importantly, almost all animals in the animal kingdom are parasitic. Own food production methods are not possible for animals. Directly or indirectly, the whole of the food system survives on the basis of this one complex task. Now we know how do plants make their own food and why it is so important.