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Beyond the BookVisit a garden or greenhouse and think about what makes plants powerful.
Imagine you are a scientist who finds a plant that has special powers. Write an entry in a science journal. Describe your plant’s special powers. Explain how it is the same as and different from other plants.
Draw a picture of your plant. Label the special parts that help give your plant its powers. Explain your plant to others.
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Powerful Plants
Powerful Plants © Learning A–Z Written by Cynthia Kennedy Henzel
Al l rights reserved.
www.sciencea-z.com
Photo Credits: Front cover: © Marek Tihelka/iStock/Thinkstock; page 3 (left): © geogphotos/Alamy; page 3 (right): © Terhox/Dreamstime.com; page 4 (top): © Wanchai Yoosumran/Dreamstime.com; page 4 (bottom): © NK08gerd/iStock/Thinkstock; page 5: © Daniel Agui lar/Reuters/Landov; page 7: © National Geographic Image Col lection/Alamy; page 8 (left): © Timothy Epp/Dreamstime.com; page 8 (right): © Vickie Sichau/iStock/Thinkstock
Il lustration Credits:Pages 2, 6, 9: Signe Nordin/© Learning A–Z
What are some special ways that plants grow and survive?
Structure and Function
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Powerful Plants
2
Unlike animals, plants can’t run, jump, fly, or dig. But they don’t just sit around doing nothing!
Plants have power. They can make changes to themselves and to the places where they live.
What Is That Plant Doing?
Plants • Powerful Plants 3
What is strong enough to break a giant rock?
A plant!
Roots hold up the plant and help it get water. Sometimes roots grow into small cracks in rock.
As the roots grow, the rock breaks apart. This begins the slow process of turning rock into soil.
Super Strength
Big and small plants can break rocks.
4
Where does your food grow? In the soil ! Plants help make and protect soil.
Dead plant parts break down, or decay, and become part of the soil. Now the soil is softer and can hold more water. It’s perfect for growing more plants!
Wind and water can move soil. But the roots of plants hold the soil together. Wind can’t blow the soil away. Rain can’t wash it away.
Save That Soil!
Dead plants and leaves add nutrients to soil.
Tree roots act like nets to hold the soil together.
Plants • Powerful Plants 5
Wind is no match for some trees. Palm trees can even stay standing during a hurricane!
That’s because palm trees bend in the wind. The trunk doesn’t break.
Palm trees also have strong roots that help hold up the trees.
Wind can even blow all the leaves, or fronds, off a palm tree. No problem! The palm tree will grow new fronds.
Standing Tall in Strong Winds
These palm trees in Mexico survived wind that blew 260 kilometers (160 mi.) per hour.
6
Some plants call for help when bugs attack. Many caterpillars eat leaves. When they start to eat, certain plants send chemicals into the air. Wasps can smell these chemicals from the plants. The wasps come to eat the bugs that are eating the plants!
Other plants make poison when something starts eating them. The animal tastes the poison and stops eating the plants.
Chemicals to the Rescue!
PLANTS CALL FOR HELP
1 A caterpillar eats a leaf.
2 The plant sends chemicals into the air.
3 A wasp smells the chemical. It eats the caterpillar.
1
23
Plants • Powerful Plants 7
Some trees can even live through forest fires. They have thick bark that does not burn easily.
Some oak trees have buds hiding under the bark. If the tree burns on the outside, the buds will grow into new branches.
Fireproof!
A eucalyptus tree grows new leaves after being burned in a fire.
Some trees need fire to open seeds and burn away other plants. Oil from eucalyptus trees makes fires burn hot and fast. This is good for the trees but not good for firefighters!
8
Some plants are super fast!
Plants can’t run. But they can open their flowers faster than your eyes can see. A bunchberry dogwood flower pops open in just half a millisecond. As it opens, pollen shoots into the air.
The Venus flytrap is also super fast. It snaps closed to catch insects.
Faster Than . . . a Plant?
bunchberry dogwood Venus flytrap
Plants • Powerful Plants 9
Plants are strong. They can break rocks and help make soil. Then they protect soil from wind and water.
Some plants can live through very strong winds. Others survive fires.
Some plants use chemicals to call for help and to save themselves. Others have fast-moving parts.
Plants really are powerful!
The Power of Plants
10
Write or draw your answers on separate paper. Use details from the book to support each answer.
1 Which words on page 4 tell you what the word decay means?
2 Describe three ways that palm trees can live through hurricane winds. Be sure to include details.
3 Look at the illustration on page 6. What might happen to the plant if step 2 did not happen?
4 What happens when the plants shown on page 8 move super fast?
What are some special ways that plants grow and survive? Write about two plant “powers” that you read about in the book. Tell how these “powers” help plants survive in the places where they grow.
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