The Economy of a Plant: teacher key

How Plants Grow, grade 11 edition, written for 11th grade. A plant earns sugar from light, spends water through its leaves, trades with fungi and reaches for the sky. A look at how the books balance, and how people found out.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What is typically the main force that moves water up in a plant?
   • Transpiration (answer)
   • Root pressure
   • Pollen
2. Why does a dry period matter once germination has begun?
   • It speeds up the cold spell
   • It will kill the embryo (answer)
   • It hardens the leaves
3. What do trees give fungi in the trade described?
   • Minerals
   • Water vapor
   • Sugars from photosynthesis (answer)
4. What did van Helmont not consider?
   • That gases in the air might be involved (answer)
   • That willows grow slowly
   • That seeds float
5. What does germination describe?
   • A seed beginning to sprout (answer)
   • A leaf losing water
   • A flower making pollen

Words

• endosperm: seed food store
• transpiration: plant water loss
• auxin: plant growth signal
• germination: a seed sprouting