--- title: Plants deeper: leaves and sunlight, how a tree is made of air — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Plants deeper: leaves and sunlight, how a tree is made of air», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A leaf is a tiny food factory. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / Plants deeper: leaves and sunlight, ho… # Plants deeper: leaves and sunlight, how a tree is made of air Lesson 251 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 20 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/0/) — A leaf is a tiny food factory. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/1/) — It takes in carbon dioxide gas from the air through little holes, pulls up water from the roots, and uses the energy of sunlight to join them into sugar. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/2/) — This is called photosynthesis. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/3/) — The green stuff in leaves, chlorophyll, is what catches the light. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/4/) — The leftover from the factory is oxygen, the gas we breathe. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/5/) — Here is the surprise: a huge oak does not eat soil to grow. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/6/) — Most of its wood is made from carbon taken out of the air, so in a real way a tree is built from air and water with sunlight as the power. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/7/) — Put a pondweed leaf in a glass of water on a sunny windowsill and watch: tiny bubbles of oxygen rise from it, the factory working in front of your eyes. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/8/) — Leaves use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide from the air into sugar for food; this is called photosynthesis. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/9/) — Most of a tree's weight comes from carbon dioxide in the air turned into wood, not from the soil. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/10/) — In the 1600s Jan van Helmont grew a willow in a pot for five years; the tree gained a lot of weight but the soil lost hardly any. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/11/) — In autumn many trees stop making green chlorophyll and take it back, so yellow and orange colours, there all along, show through; reds are made fresh, brightest after sunny days and cold nights. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/12/) — The underside of a leaf has tiny holes called stomata that open to let air in and water vapour out; a big tree can lose hundreds of litres of water on a hot day. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/13/) — Seaweeds and tiny algae in the sea also photosynthesise, and ocean algae and similar tiny sea life make roughly half of the world's oxygen. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/14/) — The Amazon giant water lily has leaves up to about three metres across, held up by stiff ribs underneath, strong enough to hold a small child spread on a board. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/15/) — The white patches of a variegated leaf have no chlorophyll and make no food, so such plants often grow more slowly. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/16/) — The sensitive plant, mimosa, folds its leaflets within seconds when touched, by moving water out of cells at the base of each leaf. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/17/) — In one experiment, mimosa plants dropped again and again without harm stopped folding and still «remembered» weeks later; scientists still argue about whether to call this learning. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/18/) — Young sunflowers turn from east to west with the sun during the day and swing back at night; grown flower heads stay facing east, which warms them in the morning and brings more bees. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/251-plants-deeper-leaves-and-sunlight-how-a-tree-is-made-of-air/19/) — Pine needles are thin, tough and waxy, so they lose little water in winter when the ground is frozen; some bristlecone pine needles stay on the tree for over 40 years. - ← previous: [Plants deeper: roots and how they drink, hold and push](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/250-plants-deeper-roots-and-how-they-drink-hold-and-push/) - next →: [Plants deeper: do trees talk? Fungi, warning smells and giant clones](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/252-plants-deeper-do-trees-talk-fungi-warning-smells-and-giant-clones/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)