--- title: Roots, stems and leaves — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Roots, stems and leaves», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A plant is built like a house with plumbing: roots underground drink water and hold on tight, the stem is a bundle of pipes and a pillar, and the --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/) [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/) / Roots, stems and leaves # Roots, stems and leaves Lesson 57 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/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/0/) — A plant is built like a house with plumbing: roots underground drink water and hold on tight, the stem is a bundle of pipes and a pillar, and the leaves are solar panels that make food. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/1/) — Try the celery trick: stand a celery stick in blue food colouring overnight, and the leaves turn blue at the edges, because water is pulled up thin tubes in the stem as it evaporates from the leaves, like a drink up a straw. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/2/) — Tie a plastic bag over a leafy branch on a sunny day and it fogs up inside: that water came up from the roots and escaped through tiny holes in the leaves called stomata. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/3/) — Plants change these parts for special jobs: a cactus turned its leaves into spines, a pea turned shoots into curly tendrils, an onion stores food in swollen leaves, and a nettle grows stinging hairs. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/4/) — Cartoons show plants drinking through their leaves when it rains and roots as just a few strings; in real life almost all the water goes in through the roots, which can spread far wider and deeper than the plant above. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/5/) — A dandelion has a thick deep taproot that stores food, so it grows back if you only pull off the leaves; grass has many thin fibrous roots near the surface; a carrot is a taproot too, growing down with no buds or leaves along it, while stems have buds. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/6/) — Roots are covered with tiny root hairs, each a single long cell, which give a much bigger surface to soak up water and minerals; one rye plant was measured with about 600 km of roots, not even counting the root hairs. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/7/) — Stems have thin tubes that carry water up from the roots, and other tubes that carry sugar round the plant. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/8/) — Leaf veins carry water in and sugar out, and hold the leaf flat like the ribs of an umbrella; leaves are thin and flat to catch light and let gases in and out. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/9/) — Leaves lose water vapour through tiny holes called stomata, mostly on the underside; this water loss, transpiration, pulls more water up from the roots. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/10/) — A cactus's spines are leaves changed into points; its fat green stem stores water and does the photosynthesis, and a thick waxy skin keeps water in; many cacti open their stomata only at night, when it is cool and much less water is lost. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/11/) — Pea plants climb with tendrils that wrap round whatever they touch, reaching the light without building a thick stem; ivy climbs with tiny gripping roots. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/12/) — Nettle hairs have glass-like tips that snap off and inject stinging chemicals; the sting stops grazing animals, so few animals eat nettles, and cooking destroys it. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/13/) — An onion is a bulb whose layers are swollen leaves storing food for next year's growth. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/14/) — In autumn trees stop making green chlorophyll, so hidden yellows and oranges show through, and some trees make new reds; they take back useful material before the leaves fall, because thin leaves would be hurt by frost and would lose water when the ground is frozen. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/15/) — The sensitive plant, Mimosa pudica, folds its leaves within seconds when touched, as water rushes out of cells at the base of each leaf; plants have no nerves or muscles. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/57-roots-stems-and-leaves/16/) — The Amazon giant water lily has floating leaves up to about 3 metres across, with air-filled ribs underneath and spines to protect it from fish; the ribs inspired the Crystal Palace in London. - ← previous: [How plants grow: seeds, light, water and air](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/56-how-plants-grow/) - next →: [Flowers and pollination](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/58-flowers-and-pollination/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)