Plant Science Facts: Leaves, Roots, Flowers

Facts true for most of the garden plants we grow.

Leaves

Leaves are how most plants get their sustenance, they live and breathe through their leaves. In this process inverse to ours, we humans benefit. The plant world needs carbon dioxide, which we exhale, and we need the oxygen they send into the atmosphere. That is why it is healthy to have houseplantsplants recommended: Corn plant (Dracaena Massangeana),English Ivy (Hedera helix),Gerbera daisies (Gerbera jamesonii),Golden pothos (Epipremnum aureum),Madagascar Dragon Tree (Dracaena),Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum),Rubber plant (Ficus elastica),Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum),Sword or Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata),Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina) inside our stuffy houses. And why the Amazon rainforest is so important to the rest of the earth.[ 1 ]

Parts of a Plant

Leaves Can Breathe

Leaf transpiration, Leaf respiration, and Stomata

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series)

Xylem are the tubes that conduct water and food up from roots to the leaves. Stomata are the pores of the leaves. Some of the transported liquid evaporates through those pores; we call that “transpiration”, the loss of water through the leaves into the air.
Plants can have qualities that reduce transpiration to increase their survival in drought or desert climates. Some to look for are the hairy leaves, like, and succulent leaves, such as the sedums.

Using this information for gardening practices, you might want to spend some time reading this handy online resource on “water wise” gardening, by Steve Solomon.

Leaves Can Eat

Parts of a Plant Links

Leaf surfaces, illustration.
Read more about plant parts

How do I take a brix reading? Check out this video.
Roots Can Drink, But Don’t Drown Them

Roots

All that leafy greenness is nothing without the roots. Roots grow first from the little seeds we plant, and then the tiny stems and leaves climb up into the light. The roots gets the moisture and the nutrients that engine the growth of the plant.

There are types of roots, and when we gardeners speak of bulbs and tubers… we are talking about the food storage systems, but there are other things to know about roots. Lots of things.

prairie plant roots

Roots need moisture to grow
Roots follow a downward path, called gravitropismroots grow in the direction of gravitational pull
More about Gravitropism.

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