Trees need sunlight for the same reason you need food. The energy from the Sun’s rays is a crucial ingredient in how plants make their own food that helps them power all their cells. Since trees don’t ...

When I was little, my family measured how tall I was. They marked it on the wall. It was amazing to see how much I grew. I talked about how plants grow with Helmut Kirchhoff. He’s a scientist at ...

Photosynthesis is the starting point for almost every food chain, sustaining most life on Earth. You would be forgiven, then, for thinking nature has perfected the art of turning sunlight into sugar.

Plants have small pores on the underside of their leaves, known as stomata. When the sun rises, these pores open and the plants absorb carbon dioxide (CO 2) from the atmosphere, which they need, in ...

Plants and trees may seem pretty passive, but behind the scenes, their cells are working hard to put on a magic show. In this episode of Crash Course Botany, we’ll explore how the processes of ...

Unlike us, plants don't need pantries full of food to stay alive; the Sun is their pantry. But, like us, they require fairly regular sustenance, which they create via photosynthesis. This seemingly ...

Over billions of years, plants mastered the art of photosynthesis, but some took it a step further. While most crops like rice still rely on the older, less efficient C3 process, others like corn and ...

Cross sections of C3 rice (left) and C4 sorghum (right) shoots. Both grain crops evolved from a common ancestor, but sorghum evolved to photosynthesize more efficiently. LA JOLLA (November 20, ...