5.1

Chapter 5 Energy and Ecosystem

Lesson 1 How do plants produce food?

Vocabulary

1. transpiration: The loss of water from a leaf through the stomata

2. Photosynthesis: The process in which plants make food by using water from the soil, carbon dioxide from the air, and energy from sunlight

3. Chlorophyll: A green pigment that allows a plant to absorb the sun’s light energy

4. Producer: A living thing, such as a plant, that makes its own food

5. Consumer: An animal that eats plants, other animals, or both

The basic parts of plants include roots, stems, and leaves. Some of those parts produce food for the plant.

Roots: Have two main jobs: 1. They anchor plants2. They take in water and nutrients.

• Tubes in the roots carry water to the stems. • Different plants have different types of roots. • Larger plants and trees need more support.

Stems

- Support a plant and enable its leaves to reach the sunlight.

- Contain tubes that carry water and nutrients to the leaves.

- Plants have different stems. Small plants tend to have flexible, green stems.

Leaves Have one main job—to make food for the plant.

Most leaves are thin and have severallayers of cells. - The outer layer, called the epidermis keeps the leaf from drying out. - The upper epidermis is often coveredwith a layer of wax. This helps keep water in. - The lower epidermis has many small openings called stomata.

• Stomata usually open during the day so the leaf can take in carbon dioxide to make food and close at night to keep the plant from drying out.

• Veins, which connect to the tubes in the stems, are found in the center of most leaves

Photosynthesis• Plants make food in a process that uses water from the soil, carbon dioxide from

the air, and energy from sunlight.

• Cells with chloroplasts are found in the inner layers of leaves on most plants. Only cells with chloroplasts can make food.

• Chloroplasts contain a green pigment, or coloring matter, called chlorophyll. It also makes plants green.

• Photosynthesis begins when sunlight hits the chloroplasts. The energy absorbed by the chlorophyll causes water and carbon dioxide to combine to form sugar—the food that plants need to live and grow.

• Oxygen is produced as a byproduct of photosynthesis. It is released into the air through the stomata.

It all start with a plant

• Plants are called producer because they produce, or make, their own food.

• The word consume means “to eat,” so we call animals that eat plants or other animals consumer.

• The energy from sunlight moves from plants to animals that eat plants to animals that eat other animals. Without sunlight, every living thing on Earth would die.