UNIT 3.

PLANTS

5 primary / Natural Science

Pedro Antonio López Hernández
 CHARACTERISTICS OF PLANTS
A plant is a living thing with limited mobility. There are many different types of plants. All plants have one thing in common: they are living things that
make their own food.

They need four substances to make their

own food: water, minerals, sunlight and CLASIFFICATION OF
PARTS OF A PLANT
carbon dioxide. They use three main PLANTS
organs to make it:
3. LEAVES
They capture
Flowering plants Non-flowering plants
sunlight and
carbon dioxide 2. STEMS
from the air. They have organs like flowers, fruits They don´t have seeds. They
Then, they use They keep the and seeds that help them to reproduce through spores. Spores are
the sunlight, plant upright reproduce. tiny cells that germinate and grow
carbon dioxide, into a new plant.
and support it.
water and The trunk of a
minerals to make tree is a very
nutrients. Angiosperms Gymnosperms
thick stem. It Ferns Mosses
also carries
water,
1. ROOTS minerals and Angiosperms,
Gymnosperms,
like apple They have root, They don´t have
nutrient to like pine trees,
leaves and stem.
They enable plants to trees, are root, leaves and
other parts of are plants that
plants that Fern spores are stem. Moss
take in water and the plant have seeds but
grow fruit with formed on the spores are
minerals from the soil. through seeds.
don´t have fruit.
underside of the produced in
Some plants store vessels. leaves capsules.
nutrients in their roots.
 PLANT NUTRITION

Photosynthesis Respiration

Plants make their own nutrients through photosynthesis. They absorb

carbon dioxide and water with minerals and release oxygen into the air. It is related to how plants get energy.

This process take place in green leaves during the day. Plants absorb oxygen from the air. Then, the oxygen and
nutrients are transformed into energy. Finally, the plant
Leaves absorb energy from sunlight through a green pigment called releases carbon dioxide and water vapour into the air.
chlorophyll and use it to produce glucose and oxygen.
Respiration takes place during the day and night, because
they need energy 24 hours a day.

Water Carbon dioxide Sunlight Glucose Oxygen

Sunlight Oxygen Carbon dioxide

Oxygen
Carbon dioxide

Water and Glucose

minerals
HOW DO PLANTS MAKE NUTRIENTS?
Day Night

1. Plants absorb water and dissolved

minerals through their roots. This
mixture of water and minerals is PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Elaborated sap:
Nutrients
called raw sap. Produces nutrients.
Releases oxygen.

2. Xylem vessels are tubes that carry

the raw sap from the roots to the
leaves.
Raw sap: Water
and minerals
3. Leaves absorb carbon dioxide
through pores called stomas. ENERGY

RESPIRATION
4. Photosynthesis takes place inside the They produce energy.
Releases carbon dioxide. ENERGY
leaves. Sunlight transforms raw sap
and carbon dioxide into nutrients
inside the leaves.
RESPIRATION
They produce energy.
5. The nutrients formed inside the Releases carbon dioxide.
leaves are called elaborated sap.

6. Phloem vessels are small tubes that

transport elaborated sap all over the
plant.
Water and minerals
 SEXUAL REPRODUCTION IN PLANTS

It takes place inside the flower when two reproductive cells from two different
1. REPRODUCTION IN FLOWERING PLANTS plants come together. This generates a new plant that is similar to them.

They have male and female reproductive organs Classification of flowers

Corolla Female organs

Male organs
The stamen is Hermaphrodite
the male
The pistil is the female Male flower flower
reproductive organ:
reproductive
organ:
1. The stigma has a Female flower
1. The anther sticky top to trap pollen.
produces and
holds pollen. 2. The style is a tube that
They usually connects the stigma
look like fine and ovary.
yellow dust. 3. The ovary is the central
part of the pistil and
2. The filament contains the ovules. In many flowers, the
gives support The male flower
The female flower male and female parts
to the anther. 4. Once an ovule is produces pollen.
produces ovules. are inside the same
fertilised it becomes a flower.
Calyx
seed.
 THE POLLINATION OF FLOWERS

Pollination occurs when pollen reaches the pistil and travels down it, where it
fertilises the ovule. This is called fertilisation.

Then, the ovary becomes a fruit and the ovule becomes a seed. Wind, insects and other agents can accidentally transport
pollen from one flower to another.
When seeds fall to the ground and germinates, a new plant grows.

Self-pollination Cross-pollination

Female flower

Seed Fruit

Male Flower

Pollen

New plant

New plant

Pollen is transferred from the stamen of a flower to the pistil of another Pollen is transferred from the stamen of a flower to the pistil of the
flower of the same plant. flower of another plant of the same type.
 2. REPRODUCTION IN NON- FLOWERING PLANTS They don´t have flowers or seeds. They use spores to reproduce. Ferns
reproduce this way.

1. Sori (singular, sorus) are sacks that

contain thousands of spores. They
are located under the fern leaves.
2. Spores fall to the ground
and form organs that
produce reproductive cells.

3. After fertilisation, a new

fern begins to grow.
 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.

1. First, a small fragment breaks off the plant.

2. Then, the fragment falls to the ground and germinates.

3. Finally, a new plant begins to grow. This new plant is an identical replica of the parent plant.

Types of fragments: Bulbs are at the bottom of the stem.

Rhizomes are
underground
They grow underground. Bulbs store
stems that
nutrients for the plant. When planted
grow
in the ground, each bulb gives rise to
Tubers are horizontally.
a new plant.
underground New plants
Cutting are Garlic and onions are bulbs.
stems. Tubers grow from
Stolons are stems that store many these stems.
aboveground produce new nutrients that
stems that roots when they get from Asparagus
grow they are the soil. and iris plants
horizontally. separated are rhizomes.
from the Potatoes are
As they grow, parent plant. tubers.
they develop
roots that Geraniums
produce a and
new plant. grapevines
Strawberries grow from
are stolons. cutting.
 HOW DO PLANTS RESPOND TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT?

Plants can move

Plants react to their environment by moving. There are two different ways plants move:

1. Phototropism is a tropic movement

and occurs when plants grow Tropic movements
Nastic movements
towards sunlight.

They occur when plants

The movement of the plant
move towards or away
does not involve growth. 2. Hydrotropism is
from a stimulus and
another tropic
involve growth.
For example: A carnivorous movement that
plant suddenly closes it leaves occurs when the
For example: Some plants
when an insects touches it. roots of plants sense
grow toward sunlight.
water in the ground
and always grow
towards the source
of water.

3. Gravitropism occurs when plants react to gravity. This

explains why roots always grow down into the soil.
 HOW DO PLANTS RESPOND TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT?
Plants respond to the seasons

Plants also respond to environmental changes in light, temperature and humidity and this influences their life cycle. Observe
how the Beech trees (deciduous) responds to weather changes in each season: