--- title: Plants we eat: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Plants we eat: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A dinner plate is a plant puzzle. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/) [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 we eat: roots, stems, leaves, f… # Plants we eat: roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds Lesson 288 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 17 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/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/0/) — A dinner plate is a plant puzzle. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/1/) — The carrot is a root, the celery is a stem, the lettuce is a leaf, the broccoli is a bunch of flower buds, and the peas are seeds. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/2/) — Scientists and cooks use words differently. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/4/) — Some surprises hide in the kitchen: a potato is a swollen stem, not a root; a banana is a berry but a strawberry is not; a peanut is not a nut; and chocolate starts as the seeds of a tree. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/5/) — Plants even fight back: an onion makes a stinging gas when you cut it, and a chilli makes a chemical that tricks your mouth into feeling fire. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/6/) — Carrots and beetroot are roots, celery and asparagus are stems, lettuce and spinach are leaves, broccoli and cauliflower are flowers, and peas and beans are seeds. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/7/) — A potato is a swollen underground stem called a tuber, and its eyes are buds; a sweet potato really is a root. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/8/) — Green potatoes and potato sprouts contain a mild poison, so they should not be eaten. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/9/) — To a botanist a fruit is the part that holds the seeds, so tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and pumpkins are fruits; in 1893 the US Supreme Court still ruled the tomato a vegetable for tax. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/10/) — Botanically, bananas, grapes and tomatoes are berries, while a strawberry, with its seeds on the outside, is not a true berry, and neither are raspberries and blackberries. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/11/) — A banana plant is a giant herb, not a tree; shop bananas have no proper seeds, so new plants grow from shoots, and almost all of them are one kind, the Cavendish, which makes them easy prey for one disease. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/12/) — Chocolate comes from cacao beans, the seeds of a tree from South and Central America now grown mostly in West Africa; the beans are fermented, dried, roasted and ground, and the Aztecs drank chocolate as a bitter drink. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/13/) — Rice grows in flooded fields called paddies in warm countries, and more than half of all people eat rice every day. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/14/) — Popcorn is a kind of maize with a hard shell and a little water inside; heat turns the water to steam, and the hard shell holds the steam in until it bursts the kernel. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/15/) — Maize was bred from a wild grass called teosinte in Mexico about 9,000 years ago. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/17/) — Chillies contain capsaicin, which makes the mouth feel heat; birds do not feel it and spread chilli seeds, and milk calms the burn better than water. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/288-plants-we-eat-roots-stems-leaves-flowers-fruits-and-seeds/18/) — Peanuts are seeds that grow in pods underground like peas and beans, and some people are badly allergic to them. - ← previous: [Farm animals: milk, eggs, wool and meat](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/287-farm-animals-milk-eggs-wool-and-meat/) - next →: [Food from around the world: how crops travelled the globe](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/289-food-from-around-the-world-how-crops-travelled-the-globe/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)