This document summarizes the key parts and functions of plants. It explains that most plants have roots, stems, and leaves, with roots absorbing water and minerals, stems supporting leaves and transporting nutrients, and leaves producing food through photosynthesis. The document also distinguishes between flowering and non-flowering plants, describing their sexual and asexual reproduction processes, and explains the importance of photosynthesis for providing oxygen and consuming carbon dioxide.

1. Most plants have three parts: roots, the stem and leaves.
The ROOTS hold the plant in the ground. Roots absorb
water and minerals that the plant needs to survive.
The STEM supports the leaves of a plant, and distributes the
water, minerals and the food the plant makes to the rest of
the plant.There are two types of stems:
-Herbaceous stems are soft and green. For example,
grass and weeds.

2. -Woody stems are hard. For example, trees and shrubs
(bushes) have a woody stem called trunk.
The LEAVES make food for the whole plant.
Each leaf is composed of a thin sheet
called a blade. The blade has veins.
The leave is attachedto the stem by a petiole.
The trees that lose their leaves completely in autumn are
called deciduous, for example oaks.
The trees that keep their leaves all year round are
called perennial or evergreen.

3. Plants can be classified into two main groups :
1) FLOWERING plants. These have organs like flowers,
fruits and seeds that help them to reproduce. There are two
types:
1-Angiosperms, like apple trees, are plants that grow
fruit with seeds. The seeds are inside the fruit.
2-Gymnosperms, like pine trees, have seeds inside
flowers (pine cones) but do not have fruit.

4. 2) NON-FLOWERING plants. These have no seeds. They
reproduce by spores.
-Ferns have roots, leaves, stems and spores in the
leaves.
-Mosses do not have roots, leaves or stems. Spores are
produced in capsules.

5. ABSORB
RELEASE ABSORB

6. PLANTS make their own food through PHOTOSYNTHESIS:
-During the DAY, leaves absorb carbon dioxide.
Chlorophyll in the leaves collect solar energy. This solar
energy transforms the carbon dioxide, water and minerals
into glucose (sugar) and oxygen the plant needs to live.
When plants produce more oxygen than they need, they
release this excess oxygen through the leaves.
-At NIGHT, when photosynthesis stops (there is no solar
energy), plants no longer release oxygen.
During this time, plants don’t produce food. Only use
nutrients to get energy to live. This activity releases
carbon dioxide.

7. As a matter of curiosity…
Chlorophyll is in the chloroplasts in the plant cells. They are
similar to solar panels. They capture solar energy and
transforms it. Instead of electricity, chloroplasts produce
glucose.
IMPORTANCE OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Photosynthesis is the most important process to life on
Earth because:
-It provides us with oxygen to breathe. For this reason
plants are called the ‘lungs’ of the Earth.
-It consumes carbon dioxide, which is toxic to most living
things.
-It transforms water and minerals into food. Then animals
can feed on plants to get energy to live.

8. HOW DO PLANTS MAKE NUTRIENTS?
1-Plants absorb water and dissolved minerals through the
roots. This mixture of water and minerals is called RAW SAP.
2-XYLEM VESSELS are tubes that carry the raw sap from
the roots to the leaves.
3-Leaves absorb carbon dioxide through pores called
STOMATAS and photosynthesis takes place in the
leaves.
4-The nutrients formed in the photosynthesis are called
ELABORATED SAP.
5-PHLOEM VESSELS are small tubes that transport
elaborated sap all over the plant.

9. SEXUAL Reproduction in Plants - FLOWERING Plants
It takes place inside the flower when two reproductive
cells come together. This generates a new plant.
Flowers are reproductive organs in most plants. There are
3 different TYPES of flowers:
1-MALE: it produces pollen.
2-FEMALE: it produces the ovules.
2
1
2
3-HERMAPHRODITE: in many flowers, the male and the
female parts are inside the same flower.

11. SEXUAL Reproduction in Plants. NON-FLOWERING Plants
Non-flowering plants don’t have flowers or seeds. So, they
use spores to reproduce. FERNS, for example, reproduce
this way:
1-Spores in the leaves fall to the ground and transform
into reproductive cells.
2-After fertilisation (male and female cells together), a
new fern begins to grow.

12. ASEXUAL Reproduction in Plants
Many plants that grow flowers and seeds can also
reproduce through FRAGMENTATION.
In fragmentation, a new plant grows from a fragment of
the parent plant.
Examples of fragments in asexual reproduction are:
CUTTINGS (geranium): stems produce new plants when
separated form the parent plant.
STOLONS (strawberry): stems grow horizontally
and develop roots.