CHAPTER 6:

PLANT NUTRITION

By Ms. Stephanie B 1
Learning objectives
6.1 Photosynthesis
Core
1. Describe photosynthesis as the process by which plants synthesise carbohydrates from
raw materials using energy from light
2. State the word equation for photosynthesis as: carbon dioxide + water → glucose +
oxygen in the presence of light and chlorophyll
3. State that chlorophyll is a green pigment that is found in chloroplasts
4. State that chlorophyll transfers energy from light into energy in chemicals, for the
synthesis of carbohydrates
5. Outline the subsequent use and storage of thecarbohydrates made in photosynthesis,
limited to:
a) starch as an energy store
b) cellulose to build cell walls
c) glucose used in respiration to provide energy
d) sucrose for transport in the phloem
2
e) nectar to attract insects for pollination
Learning objectives
6.1 Photosynthesis
Core
6. Explain the importance of:
a) nitrate ions for making amino acids
b) magnesium ions for making chlorophyll
7. Investigate the need for chlorophyll, light and carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, using
appropriate controls
8. Investigate and describe the effects of varying light intensity, carbon dioxide concentration
and temperature on the rate of photosynthesis
9. Investigate and describe the effect of light and dark conditions on gas exchange in an aquatic
plant using hydrogencarbonate indicator solution
Supplement
10. State the balanced chemical equation for photosynthesis as:
6CO2 + 6H2O → C6H12O6 + 6O2
11. Identify and explain the limiting factors of photosynthesis in different environmental conditions
3
Learning objectives
6.2 Leaf structure
Core
1. State that most leaves have a large surface area and are thin, and explain
how these features are adaptations for photosynthesis
2. Identify in diagrams and images the following structures in the leaf of a
dicotyledonous plant: chloroplasts, cuticle, guard cells and stomata, upper and
lower epidermis, palisade mesophyll, spongy mesophyll, air spaces, vascular
bundles, xylem and phloem
3. Explain how the structures listed in 6.2.2 adapt leaves for photosynthesis

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Types of nutrition
 Nutrition: Taking in useful substances (feeding).
 All living organisms need to take in substances to:
• Make new parts
• Repair old parts
• Release energy
 Animals and fungi cannot make their own food. They feed on organic
substances that have originally been made by plants. Some animals eat
other animals, but all the substances passing from one animal to another
were first made by plants.
 Green plants make their own food. They use simple inorganic
substances - carbon dioxide, water and minerals - from the air and soil.
Plants build these substances into complex materials, making all the
carbohydrates, lipids, proteins and vitamins that they need. Substances
made by living things are said to be organic. 5
Photosynthesis
 Green plants make the carbohydrate glucose from carbon dioxide and
water. At the same time, oxygen is produced.
 If you just mix carbon dioxide and water together, they will not make
glucose. They have to be given energy before they will combine. Green
plants use the energy of sunlight for this. The reaction is therefore called
photosynthesis (‘photo’ means light, and 'synthesis’ means
manufacture).
Key Definition
Photosynthesis - the
process by which plants
manufacture
carbohydrates from raw
materials using energy
from light
6
Photosynthesis
 ‘Photo’= light; ‘synthesis’= manufacture
 Green plants make glucose from carbon dioxide and water using energy
from sunlight. Oxygen is produced at the same time.
 Sunlight is trapped by chlorophyll (a pigment which makes
plants look green)
• Chlorophyll is kept inside the chloroplasts of plant cells.
• When sunlight falls on a chlorophyll molecules, some of the energy in
the light is absorbed.
• The chlorophyll molecule releases the energy.
• The released energy makes carbon dioxide combine with water, with
the help of enzymes in the chloroplast.
• The glucose that is made contains energy that was originally in the
sunlight.
• So, in this process, light energy is transferred to chemical energy.
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Photosynthesis
 The word equation for photosynthesis is written like this:
sunlight
carbon dioxide + water glucose + oxygen
chlorophyll
 The molecular formula of carbon dioxide is CO2. Oxygen
us written as [Link] has the formula H2O. Glucose has
the formula C6H12O6.
 The balanced chemical equation for photosynthesis is:
sunlight
6CO2 + 6H2O C6H12O6 + 6O2
chlorophyll 8
Uses of glucose in the plant
 One of the products of photosynthesis, glucose, is used for many
different purposes:
1. Releasing useful energy
• Energy is released from glucose by respiration.
• Some of the glucose is used by the plant to provide energy for various
activities in cells.
• For example: to move ions into root hairs
by active transport

9
Uses of glucose in the plant
2. Stored as starch
• Glucose is a simple sugar. It is soluble in water, and quite a reactive
substance. Therefore, it is not a very good storage molecule:
a) First, being reactive, it might get involved in chemical reactions where
it is not wanted.
b) Secondly, it would dissolve in the water in and around the plant cells,
and might be lost from the cell.
c) Thirdly, when dissolved, it would increase the concentration of the
solution in the cell, which could cause damage.
• Thus, the glucose is converted into starch to be stored.
• Starch is a polysaccharide, made of many glucose molecules joined
together. Being such a large molecule, it is not very reactive, and not
very soluble.
• Starch can be made into granules which can be easily stored inside the
chloroplasts. 10
Uses of glucose in the plant
3. Changed to sucrose for transport
• A molecule has to be small and soluble to be transported easily.
✓Glucose is small, soluble but it is also rather reactive.
✓It is therefore converted to the complex
sugar sucrose to be transported.
✓ Sucrose dissolves in the sap in the
phloem vessels, and can be distributed to
whichever parts of the plant need them.
• The sucrose may later be turned back into
glucose again:
i. to be broken down to release energy
ii. turned into starch and stored
iii. used to make other substances which are
needed for growth. 11
Uses of glucose in the plant
4. Used to make cellulose, to build cell walls
• As plants grow, they make new cells.
• Every cell needs a cell wall, so a growing plant makes cellulose to form
these cell walls.
• Cellulose is made by linking glucose molecules in long chains, in a
different way from starch, so the chains stay straight rather than coiling up
into spirals.

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Uses of glucose in the plant
5. Used to nectar, to attract pollinators
• Nectar contains different kinds of sugar, all made from the glucose that the
plant has made by photosynthesis.
• Flowers produce nectar for animals to feed on, as a reward for transferring
the male gametes in pollen grains from one flower to another.

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Uses of glucose in the plant
6. Used to make amino acids, to make proteins
• Plants can also use glucose to make amino acids, which can be built
into proteins.
✓Air is 78% nitrogen- it is useless to plants because it is very
unreactive.
✓Plants have to be supplied with nitrogen in a more reactive form,
usually as nitrate ions (NO3-).
✓Plants absorb nitrate ions from the soil, through their root hairs, by
active transport.
✓The nitrate ions combine with glucose to make amino acids. The
amino acids are then strung together to form protein molecules.

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Uses of glucose in the plant
7. Used to make other organic substances, e.g. chlorophyll
• Plants need nitrate ions and magnesium ions to make chlorophyll.
• Farmers often add extra mineral ions to the soil in which their crops are
growing, to make sure that they do not run short of these essential
substances.
• Without these ions, the plant’s leaves will look yellow, and will not be able
to photosynthesise well.

15
Uses of
glucose
in the
plant

16
Structure of leaves
 A leafconsists of a broad, flat part called the lamina ,
which is joined to the rest of the plant by a leaf stalk or petiole.
Running through the petiole are vascular bundles, which then
form the veins in the leaf. These contain tubes which carry
substances to and from the leaf.
 A leaf is made up of several layer of cells even though it looks
thin.
Structure of leaves
 The top and
bottom of the leaf
are covered with
a layer of closely
fitting cells called
the epidermis.
• These cells do
not contain
chloroplasts.  The cells of the upper epidermis often
• Function secrete a waxy substance called the
:protect the cuticle .
inner layers of • Function: helps to stop water evaporating
cells in the leaf.
from the leaf
Structure of leaves
 Inthe lower epidermis, there are small openings called
stomata (singular: stoma).
• Each stoma is surrounded by a pair of sausage-shaped
guard cells which can open or close the hole. Guard cells,
unlike other cells in the epidermis, do contain chloroplasts.

19
Structure of leaves
 The middle layers of the
leaf are called mesophyll
(‘meso’= middle, ‘phyll’=
leaf). These cells contain
chloroplasts.
 The cells nearer the top of
the leaf are arranged like
a fence- palisade
mesophyll
 The cells beneath them Palisade
are rounder, and arranged mesophyll
loosely with large air
spaces between them- Spongy
spongy mesophyll . mesophyll 20
Structure of leaves
 Running through the
mesophyll are veins
or vascular
bundles containing:
• Large, thick-walled
xylem vessels: for
carrying water
• Smaller, thin-
walled phloem
tubes: for carrying
away sucrose and
other substances
made by the leaf 21
Adaptations of leaves
 Leaves are adapted to obtain carbon dioxide,
water and sunlight.
1. Carbon dioxide (CO2)
• The leaf is held out into the air by the stem and
leaf stalk.
• Large surface area helps to expose it to as much
air as possible.
• Mesophyll cells (in the leaf) need CO2
✓CO2 diffuses into the leaf through the stomata.
✓Behind each stoma is an air space – connects
with other air spaces between the spongy
mesophyll cells.
✓CO2 can diffuse to all the cells in the leaf,
through the cell wall and cell membrane of
each cell and into the chloroplasts. 22
Adaptations of leaves
2. Water
• Water is obtained from the soil.
• It is absorbed by the root hairs and
carried up to the leaf in the xylem
vessels.
• It then travels from the xylem vessels
to the mesophyll cells by osmosis.
• Xylem vessels are found within a
short distance of every mesophyll
cell- to supply water to the cells in the
leaf.

23
Adaptations of leaves
3. Sunlight
• Chloroplasts are arranged to get as
much sunlight as possible, particularly
those in the palisade cells.
✓ The chloroplasts can lie broadside
on to do this.
✓ But in strong sunlight, they often
arrange themselves end on- This
reduces the amount of light
absorbed.
• Inside chloroplasts, the chlorophyll is
arranged on flat membranes to expose
as much as possible to the sunlight.
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25
Photosynthesis
in a leaf

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Testing leaves for starch
 Iodine solution is used to test for starch.
 A blue-black colour shows that starch is present.
 If you put iodine solution onto a leaf which
contains starch, it will not immediately turn
black:
• The iodine solution cannot get through
the cell membranes to reach the starch
inside the chloroplast in the cells and
react with it.
• The green colour of the leaf and the
brown iodine solution can look black
together. 27
Testing leaves for starch
 Therefore, before testing a leaf for starch, you must break down the cell
membranes, and get rid of the green colour (chlorophyll) as below:
1. Take a leaf from a healthy plant, and drop it
into boiling water in a water bath. Leave for
about 30 s. Turn off the Bunsen flame.
2. Remove the leaf and drop it into a tube of
alcohol in the water bath. Leave it until all the
chlorophyll has come out of the leaf.
3. Remove the brittle leaf from the alcohol and
dip it into hot water again to soften it.
4. Spread the leaf on a white tile and cover it
with iodine solution. A blue-black colour shows
that the leaf contains starch. 28
Experimental controls
 In each investigation, the plant is given everything it needs, except
for one substance.
 Another plant is used at the same time. This is a control. The control
is given everything it needs, including the substance being tested for.
Sometimes the control is a leaf, or even a part of a leaf, from the
experimental plant. The important thing is that the control has all the
substances it needs, while the experimental plant - or leaf - is lacking
one substance.
 Both plants (or leaves) are then treated in exactly the same way. Any
differences between them at the end of the investigation, therefore,
must be because of the substance being tested.
 At the end of the investigation, test a leaf from your experimental
plant and one from your control to see if they have made starch. By
comparing them, you can find out which substances are necessary
for photosynthesis. 29
Destarching plants
 Itis very important that the leaves you are testing should not
have any starch in them at the beginning of the investigation. If
they did, and you found that the leaves contained starch at the
end of the investigation, you could not be sure that they had
been photosynthesising. The starch might have been made
before the investigation began.
 So, before doing any of these investigations, you must destarch
the plants. The easiest way to do this is to leave them in a dark
cupboard for at least 24 hours .
 The plants cannot photosynthesise while they are in the
cupboard because there is no light. So they use up their stores
of starch. To be certain that they are thoroughly destarched, test
a leaf for starch before you begin. 30
To see if light is needed for photosynthesis
Safety precautions:
• Wear eye protection if available.
• Take care with the boiling water.
• Alcohol is very flammable. Turn out your Bunsen flame
before putting the tube of alcohol into the hot water.
• Use forceps to handle the leaf.

1. Take a plant, growing in a pot. Leave it

in a cupboard for a few days, to
destarch it.
2. Test one of its leaves for starch, to check that it does not contain any.
3. Using a folded piece of black paper or aluminium foil, a little larger than a
leaf, cut out a shape. Fasten the paper or foil over both sides of a leaf on
your plant, making sure that the edges are held firmly together. Don’t
take the leaf off the plant!
4. Leave the plant near a warm, sunny window for a few days.
5. Remove the cover from the leaf, and test the leaf for starch. 31
To see if chlorophyll is needed for photosynthesis
1. Destarch a plant with variegated (green and white)
leaves. Then leave your plant in a warm, sunny spot for
a few days.
2. Test one of the leaves for starch.
Results:
Only the parts that were
previously green turn
blue-black when
stained with iodine. The
parts that were white
were stained brown.
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To see if carbon dioxide is needed for photosynthesis
1. Water two destarched potted plants and enclose
their shoots in polythene bags.
2. In one pot place a dish of soda-lime
to absorb the carbon dioxide from the air (the
experiment).
3. In the other place a dish of sodium
hydrogen carbonate solution
to produce carbon dioxide (the control).
4. Place both plants in the light for several hours
and then test a leaf from each for starch.

Results:
The leaf that had no carbon dioxide remains brown when stained with iodine.
The one from the polythene bag containing carbon dioxide turns blue-black when
stained with iodine. 33
To show that oxygen is produced in photosynthesis
1. Place an inverted funnel over some aquatic plant in a beaker of
water.
2. Fill a test tube with water and place it upside-down over the funnel
stem.
3. Leave the apparatus near a warm, sunny
window for a few days.
4. Carefully remove the test tube from the top of
the funnel, allowing the water to run out, but not
allowing the gas to escape.
5. Insert a glowing splint carefully into the gas
in the test tube. If it bursts into flame, then the
gas is oxygen. 34
Investigating the effect of light and darkness on gas
exchange in an aquatic plant
1. Pour hydrogencarbonate indicator into each of the four tubes, to the
same depth in each one. Record the colour of the indicator in each
tube.
2. Place a piece of aquatic plant in the indicator in two tubes. Try to
use similar sizes of plant in each.
3. Use black paper to wrap around one of the tubes with a plant in it,
and one without. Make sure the tubes are completely covered.

35
Investigating the effect of light and darkness on gas
exchange in an aquatic plant
4. Stand all four tubes in the light and leave them for at least one hour
– preferably longer.
5. When the indicator has changed colour in at least one of the tubes
without a covering, remove the black paper from the two covered
tubes. Record the colour of the indicator in each tube.
Plants, like all living
organisms, respire.
They do this all the
time. Respiration uses
oxygen and produces
carbon dioxide. In
bright light, plants
photosynthesise as
well as respiring. They
photosynthesise faster
than they respire. 36
Limiting factors
 Quite often plants do not have unlimited supplies of CO2, water and
sunlight, and so their rate of photosynthesis is not as high as it might be.
1. Light intensity
 In the dark, a plant cannot photosynthesise at all.
 In dim light, it can photosynthesise slowly.
 As light intensity increases, the rate of photosynthesis will increase, until
the plant is photosynthesising as fast as it can.
• At this point, even if the light becomes brighter, the plant cannot
photosynthesise any faster.
Key Definition
Limiting factor - something present in the
environment in such short supply that it
restricts life processes 37
Limiting factors
1. Light intensity
 Over the first part of the curve in the
figure below: between A and B,
light is a limiting factor. The plant
is limited in how fast it can
photosynthesise because it does not
have enough light. You can see this
because when the plant is given
more light, it photosynthesises
faster.

 Between B and C, however, light is not a limiting factor. You can

show this because, even if more light is shone on the plant, it still cannot
photosynthesise any faster. It already has as much light as it can use.
38
Limiting factors
2. Carbon dioxide
 The more carbon dioxide a plant is
given, the faster it can photosynthesise
up to a point, until a maximum is
reached.

3. Temperature
 The chemical reactions of
photosynthesis can only take place very
slowly at low temperatures, so a plant
can photosynthesise faster on a warm
day than on a cold one. 39
Limiting factors
4. Stomata
 CO2 diffuses into the leaf through the stomata.
 If the stomata are closed, photosynthesis cannot take place.

 Ifthe weather is too hot and

sunny:
• Stomata often close- mesophyll

prevent too much water

being lost.
• This means that on a really
hot day, photosynthesis
may slow down.
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