Photosynthesis
The process that happens within a plant's leaves to manufacture food for the entire plant is a process known as photosynthesis. This food manufacturing process is known to happen among green leafed plants. Photosynthesis is essential to a plant's survival. Humans and animals are also dependent on this process because plants provide them with food, shelter, clothing, and air to breathe.
Each leaf on a green plant contains tiny holes that the plant can open and close. These holes are called stomata. A plant's stomata are open during the day when there is sunlight. The stomata take in carbon dioxide from the air or the earth's atmosphere and use the carbon from this compound in order to produce food. After food production the stomata releases its bi‐product, which is oxygen.
In the early stages of the earth's formation, the atmosphere was composed mostly of carbon and very little oxygen. Thanks to the photosynthesis of green plants, the earth's atmosphere changed over time and is now 21% oxygen, making it possible for the animals on earth to survive. Oxygen is the gas humans and animals need to run the cells in their bodies. Animals and humans inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, which is the reverse of what plants do! It's the perfect give and take relationship.
When there is no sunlight, plants cannot produce food so their stomata close. This usually happens at night. As the sun rises to start a new day, the light hits the leaves, signaling the stomata to open, and the process of photosynthesis starts again. So what exactly happens in photosynthesis?
When photosynthesis occurs, light energy from the sun hits the plants leaves. The leaves absorb this energy and use it to make the carbon dioxide taken from the air react with the water taken from the roots. When this reaction happens, two products are formed, sugar and oxygen. As we know, the oxygen is released by the plant. The sugar or glucose, which is the other product of the reaction, is the plant's food.
During the process, the light energy was transformed, now stored as chemical energy within the bonds of the plant's sugar or food. This entire process happens within a plant's chloroplasts, which are found inside all plant cells. Chloroplasts contain chlorophyll, which is what makes the leaves appear green. It is chlorophyll that is responsible for absorbing the sunlight or light energy in order to start the photosynthetic process.
In higher grades, you will learn that there are other factors or plant parts that play roles in the process of photosynthesis. What was described above is simply the basic process.
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