17. Create the web chart on excretion in plants.
Answers
There is an immense difference in the structure and composition of plants and animals. Did you know that when chemical reactions occur in plants, oxygen is released? This oxygen is supposedly a waste product that the photosynthesis process generates.
Photosynthesis occurs in plants, in the presence of sunlight. This chemical reaction gives rise to oxygen, which is a gas. It diffuses through the stomata or the openings in the leaves. Any excess water that is present in plants gets evaporated through the transpiration process.
Another interesting feature here in plants is that some of the plant wastes are stored in cellular vacuoles, in leaves that fall off. Some other waste products are stored in the xylem, like resins and gums.
Explanation:
Living organisms sustain life, based on certain life processes. These life processes help to regulate their daily activities. Excretion is one among them. The metabolism takes place in the cells of living organisms resulting in both useful and toxic products. The accumulation of toxins may harm the organism. Thus, the living organisms remove all these metabolic wastes from their body and this process is called excretion. Different organisms follow different modes of excretion. Let’s have a glance at excretion in plants and how excretion in plants is different from that of animals.
Excretion in Plants
Elimination of toxic and waste products from the body is called excretion. Organisms like animals have an advanced and specialized system for excretion. But plants lack a well-developed excretory system like that in animals. They do not have special organs for excretion. Thus, excretion in plants is not so complex.
Excretory products
The cellular respiration, photosynthesis, and other metabolic reactions produce a lot of excretory products in plants. Carbon dioxide, excess water produced during respiration and nitrogenous compounds produced during protein metabolism are the major excretory products in plants.
Plants produce two gaseous waste products i.e. oxygen during photosynthesis and carbon dioxide during respiration. Excretion of gaseous waste in plants takes place through stomatal pores on leaves. Oxygen released during photosynthesis is used for respiration while carbon dioxide released during respiration is used for photosynthesis.
Excess of water is also excreted from the plant body through the stomatal pores and from the surfaces of fruits and stems. The process of elimination of water is called transpiration.