Food

from
Plants

Green plants are the foundation of the

food pyramid in our entire biosphere. They
obtain the energy directly from the sun
and convert it to food. Thus they are
called producers.
Human beings learned to control the
kinds and numbers of plants around them.
They practice agriculture which is a
deliberate cultivation of plants for human
and animal consumption. They grow
cereals, vegetables, fruit-bearing trees,
and root-crops. They eat many different
parts of plants such as leaves, fruits,
stems, roots, flowers, and seeds.

Many plants have edible leaves and

flowers. Leafy vegetables such as
cabbage, lettuce, spinach, pechay, and
mustard are all leaves; while cauliflower
and broccoli are flowers.

Some plants store food in their roots and

stems. Edible roots and stems are usually
thick and fleshy. When you eat sweet
potato, radish, carrot, and cassava, you are
eating roots. When you eat asparagus,
bamboo shoot, and white potato, you are
eating stems. White potato is an
underground stem.

Plants store food in their fruits. So many

fruits and seeds are edible. When you eat
apples, mangoes, quavas, chicos, oranges,
and berries, you are eating fruits. But some
vegetables like cucumber, squash, string
beans, egg plant, tomato, and "ampalaya" are
also fruits. Cereals are also fruits of some
members of the grass family, such as rice,
wheat, corn, and oats. Beans and nuts are
edible seeds.

Some plants are not eaten as basic food but

as flavors to give food a pleasant taste and/or
smell. They are called spices. Almost all spices
are obtained from one part of a plant or
another. Ginger is made from the underground
stem of a ginger plant. Cinnamon is made from
barks, oregano from leaves, pepper from fruits,
etc.

Not all parts of a plant are edible. The

fruit of a cherry, for example, is edible. But its
leaves can harm you. Some plants are not safe
to eat until they are cooked. The "kamoteng
kahoy" roots are poisonous when raw, but
edible when cooked properly.

Activity
The Green Plants
1. Problem.
What parts of a plant do people eat?
2. Materials.
list of edible plants
3. Procedure.
3.1 Listed under the first column below are
different edible plants. Place a check ( )
opposite each name, under one or more of the
succeeding columns, the part of the plant that is
edible.
3.2 Infer from your observations which plant
has the most number of edible parts.

4.

Observations and Inferences.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

papaya
sayote
water melon
sweet potato
calamansi
malunggay
celery
mango
rice
10. corn

FRU
IT

SEE
D

LEAF STEM ROOT FLOW

ER

5. Generalization.
___________________________________________________
__________________________________________________
Values Integration and Personal Reflection
Suppose you were to become a plant. What plant
would you rather be and why ?

Values
Agriculture was invented by man, not only
to produce food from plants, but also to
improve the quality of food, because the
quality of life depends on the quality of
food that he eats. You are what you eat.
Eating junk foods is the same as "junking"
or wasting the quality of your life.
Suppose you were to become a plant.
What plant would you rather be and why?

Multiple Choice.
followed by four
answer.

Each of the following items is

options. Choose the correct

1. Which of the following statements does not explain

why green plants are at the base of the food
pyramid ?
a. They are deliberately cultivated for animal and
human
consumption.
b. They do not depend on other organisms for their
own
nourishment.
c. They obtain energy directly from the sun to make
their
own food.
d. They have the greatest amount of food available
in
any ecosystem.

2. Which is NOT a primary consumer in a food

chain ?
a. a herbivore
b. a carnivore
c. an omnivore
d. an animal that depends entirely on plants
3. A human being can never be a/an
a. producer.
c. carnivore.
b. herbivore.
d. omnivore.

4. Human beings have developed agriculture, which is

a deliberate cultivation of plants for their
consumption. Why did they find the need for
agriculture?
a. Not all plants are edible, so they have to cultivate
those that can be eaten.
b. As a population grows, edible plants are being
depleted.
c. They found the need to control the kind and
number
of plants they eat.
d. All of these.
5. What kind of food are the following: rice, corn, oat,
wheat ?
a. vegetables
c. fruits
c. cereals
d. root-crops

Assignment

1. Interview your parents, cooks, or any

resource person of your choice: Make a list of
edible plants/plant parts other than those
already mentioned.
2. What are the other uses of plants?

Thank
you for
listening