Did you know? Photosynthesis Most plants are really lucky - they don't have to go out shopping for their food or spend time cooking it. They just sit around in our gardens waiting for sunshine and then they make their food themselves. Find out how . . .

In this article

Plants

A breath of fresh air

Interesting facts

They use the sunlight and the green in their leaves to make sugars from carbon dioxide (which they breathe in through their leaves during the day) and water. This sugar is then used to give the plant energy so that it can grow. This process is called photosynthesis and is the most important process on the planet, as many other plants and animals depend on plants to survive. Most of the energy is used to make new plant material, although some of it is stored by the plant for use during the months when there is less sunlight.

During the night, plants breathe in oxygen. This is called respiration. The plant also needs minerals to grow, which the plant takes from the soil where they are dissolved in water. The plant releases any water that it doesn't need into the air through its leaves. This is called transpiration.

Plants are the only living organisms that can make their own food. This is one of the main ways of deciding if something is a plant.

If plants could not turn the sun's energy into food, we would all die. That is because we can eat all sorts of things plants grow, such as leaves, seeds, fruits, roots, nuts and flowers. But we can't eat sunshine!

Light is so important to plants, that their leaves grow in many patterns so as to catch the most light.

• In many tropical areas of the world there are huge forests. These are often known as the 'lungs of the world' because they produce oxygen. These forests are really important because they reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. This is a gas that is increasing because of industrial pollution. It is thought to be creating a 'greenhouse' in the sky that heats up the planet and changes the weather.
• Millions of years ago, the sun's energy helped prehistoric plants to grow. When we burn coal we are reusing that ancient sun-energy, because coal is made from prehistoric trees.
• There is an amazing plant from Southern Africa called Welwitschia mirabilis or Tree Tumbo, some of which are nearly 1,000 years old. It only ever has two leaves! Each leaf can be over 8m (27ft) long - that is longer than four baths!
• The largest leaves grow on the Amazon water lily. In a single year the plant will produce leaves of more than 2m (6.6ft) across.