How does A Plant Make Its Food?

Plant

Green plants make food in their leaves in a special food-making process called “photosynthesis.”

Green plants make food in their leaves in a special food-making process called “photosynthesis” (pronounced foe toe SIN three siss), a word meaning “putting together with light.”

A leaf manufactures food by taking carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil and changing them into simple sugars.

To do this, it also needs sunlight and green plant material called “chlorophyll.”  This name means “leaf green,” and is the material that gives plants their green color.

The chlorophyll uses the energy of sunlight to change the carbon dioxide gas and water into sugar.

Once the sugar is made, the plant changes it into starch and other foods it needs to grow.  To make some foods it needs minerals from the soil.

Some plants, such as mushrooms and mistletoe, have no leaf green, and cannot make their own food.  They must live on food green plants have made.–Dick Rogers