Science
What are the parts of a plant?
Quick answer
The main parts of a flowering plant are the roots, stem, leaves and flowers. Each part has a job, from soaking up water to making food and producing seeds.
In one sentence
A flowering plant has four main parts: roots, a stem, leaves and flowers, and each one does a different job to keep the plant alive.
Explained
Think of a plant like a tiny factory. Each part is a different department.
Roots grow underground. They hold the plant steady, like an anchor, and soak up water and minerals from the soil.
The stem holds the plant up towards the light. Inside it are thin tubes, a bit like drinking straws, that carry water up from the roots and food from the leaves to the rest of the plant. In trees, the stem is called a trunk.
Leaves are the food makers. They catch sunlight and use it, with water and carbon dioxide from the air, to make sugar. This is called photosynthesis. Most leaves are wide and flat so they can catch lots of light.
Flowers are for making new plants. Their bright colours and scent attract insects such as bees. The insects carry pollen from flower to flower. Once a flower is pollinated, it can make seeds, often inside a fruit.
Examples
| Food we eat | Which part of the plant? |
|---|---|
| Carrot, radish | Root |
| Celery, asparagus | Stem |
| Lettuce, spinach | Leaf |
| Broccoli, cauliflower | Flower buds |
| Apple, tomato, pepper | Fruit (holds the seeds) |
| Peas, beans, rice | Seeds |
| Potato | Swollen underground stem (a tuber) |
carrot
tomato
corn
apple
Common mistakes
- "A tomato is a vegetable." In cooking, yes. In science, a tomato is a fruit, because it grows from a flower and holds seeds.
- "Roots eat soil." Roots take in water and minerals, not food. Plants make their own food in their leaves.
- "A potato is a root." It grows underground, but scientists class it as a swollen stem. You can tell because its "eyes" sprout new shoots.
- "All plants have flowers." Ferns and mosses do not. They make spores instead of seeds.
Quick quiz
Parts of a plant
Check what you know with 4 quick questions.
Question 1 of 4
Which part of a plant takes in water from the soil?
Practise it
Try it
Pull up a weed and draw it, labelling each part. Then find out how a seed becomes a plant in life cycles.
Practise it step by step in a full course: Grade 2 Science
For grown-ups
Related topics
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is how green plants make their own food. They use energy from sunlight to turn carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil into sugar, giving out oxygen.
Life cycles
A life cycle is the series of changes a living thing goes through from the start of its life to becoming an adult that can produce young, so the cycle begins again.
Living things
Living things are organisms that grow, feed, get rid of waste, sense the world and reproduce. Plants, animals, fungi and bacteria are all alive.
Adaptation
An adaptation is a feature or behaviour that helps a living thing survive where it lives. A polar bear's thick fur and a cactus's spines are adaptations.
Amphibians
Amphibians are cold-blooded animals with thin, moist skin that live part of their lives in water and part on land. Frogs, toads, newts and salamanders are amphibians.
Birds
Birds are warm-blooded animals with feathers, wings and a beak. They lay hard-shelled eggs, and most can fly. Penguins, ostriches and parrots are all birds.