Write a brief note on respiration in plants.
A.
- In most plants exchange of gases takes place through stomata.
- There are other areas on the plant body as well, through which gaseous exchange takes place like surface of roots, lenticels on stem, etc.
- Some plants have specialized structures like, breathing roots of mangrove plants as well as the tissue in orchids.
- Breathing roots and tissue in orchids help plants to take oxygen to produce energy and carbon dioxide is released.
- Inside the plants stomatal openings lead to a series of spaces between the cells which form a continuous network all over the plant.
- The whole system works by diffusion.
- As the oxygen is used up by the cells a gradient develops between the cells and the air in the spaces and similarly between the air spaces and the air outside stomata and lenticels, so oxygen passes in:
- In the same way, as more carbon dioxide is given out by the cells, a gradient occurs in the reverse direction and it passes out.