Photosynthesis, Respiration, Transpiration, and Reproduction in Plants - Comic
Storyboard Text
- I'm not sure, Bee-ana. Maybe that flower over there knows?
- Hey Bee-atrice, you know how we pollinate flowers? Why do you think that is?
- I do know! I'm Lily the lily, by the way. You guys help us to reproduce when you pollinate us! You see-pals, flowers have male and female parts. The male part, called the stamen, has an anther and a filament. The female part, called the pistil, has a stima, style, and ovary.
- Yeah, it is... but how do us bees pollinating flowers help you guys?
- Wow! That's incredible!
- Well, when you guys land on the anthers of flowers, you pick up some pollen. Then, when you fly by the sticky stigma of the flower, the pollen gets stuck there, which is called pollination. Then, the pollen grain travels down the style into the ovary, meets an ovule (also called an egg), and turns into a seed, while the ovary turns into the fruit! That's called fertilization. Then, the plant can spread its seeds and grow more plants. That's reproduction. The petals and sepals help, too. The petals attract pollinators, and the sepals protect the bud while it is developing.
- Me neither! It's amazing!
- I didn't know any of that!
- Well, there's more! Reproduction isn't the only process plants undergo. There is also photosynthesis. That's when plants turn sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into glucose (sugar; it's food for the plant) and oxygen (which gets released into the air)!
- There's also cellular respiration, which is the process that plants and other organisms use to convert glucose into a usable form of energy (ATP). The funny thing is, the waste product of photosynthesis is used in cellular respiration, and the waste product of cellular respiration is used in photosynthesis!
- Wow! I never knew plants did so many awesome things!
- Me neither. Are there other processes that plants use to help them to survive?
- Yup! It's called transpiration. It's when water taken in through the roots of the plant (some of which gets used in photosynthesis) ends up being evaporated through a plant's stomas, which are little pores (or holes) on a plant's leaf. This process helps to cool the plant down! But, plants have to be careful to control transpiration, otherwise they would wither up and die. The guard cells surrounding the stomata help with that, by opening and closing them as needed.
- Wow! There are so many things plants can do that I didn't know about... it almost makes you seem perfect!
- Wow, really?
- Yeah, how would you guys get your food?
- Hey, have plants ever been to the moon?
- Hey, I'm not Google! Some things, I just don't know the anther!
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