We must not forget that plants are living things. They eat, drink, and breathe, and without plenty of good food, they die. With the exception of two classes of plants, all plants manufacture their own food. Let’s see how they go about doing this.

The marvelous substance called chlorophyll in the cells of the leaves and often in the stem and flowers helps the living tissue of the plant to absorb the energy from sunlight. This energy transforms dead (inorganic) chemicals into life-giving (organic) chemicals. The name for this truly amazing process is photosynthesis.