Class 6 Science- Plant Parts as Food

Plant parts as food

The various parts of plants which are used as food materials by us are: Roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds.

Most plants are made up of roots, stems, leaves, flowers, buds and produce fruits containing seeds.

Humans most commonly eat the seeds (e.g. maize, wheat, coffee and various nuts), fruit (e.g. tomato and apple), leaves (e.g. lettuce, spinach, and cabbage), or roots (e.g. carrots and beets), but we also eat the stems of many plants.

This means that almost all the parts of plants are used as food in one way or the other. This is discussed below.

(i) Plant roots as food: Root vegetables are plant roots used as vegetables. Here "root" means any underground part of a plant.

Root vegetables are generally storage organs, enlarged to store energy in the form of carbohydrates.

We eat the roots of some plants as food. For example, carrot, radish, beet, sweet potato and turnip.

(ii) Plant stems as food: Plant stems are another part of plants that are eaten by humans.  Ex. Asparagus, celery ,sugarcane etc.

(iii) Plant leaves as food: Plants make food in their leaves. The leafy vegetables are the leaves of the plants. For example, lettuce , spinach (palak and saag).

(iv) Flowers as food: The flowers of some of the plants are eaten as food. For example, Cauliflower, broccoli, the flowers of banana plant and pumpkin plants are also eaten as a vegetable in many parts of our country.

(v) Fruits as food: There are some plants which store food in their fruits. So we eat the fruits of such plants as food.

For example, apple, orange, peach, mango, pears, banana, plums etc.

(vi) Seeds as food: Some of the plants store nutrition in their seeds. So we eat the seeds of these plants as food.

For example, foodgrains such as wheat, maize, rice, millet, peas and pulses.