Video narration
How can a plant make food while standing still, with no shopping, no kitchen, and no mouth? Think of a leaf as a tiny kitchen. Sunlight is not the food; it is the energy that powers the cooking. Water travels up from the roots, while carbon dioxide, a gas in the air, enters through the leaves. Here is the turn: the plant is not eating sunlight. Light energy helps combine water and carbon dioxide into glucose, a sugar that stores usable energy. That process is photosynthesis. Some glucose fuels the plant immediately; some is stored or turned into materials for growth. Meanwhile, oxygen leaves the leaf and joins the air. Animals breathe that oxygen, and plants depend on the food they make. So how does a motionless plant make food? It cooks: sunlight powers the combining of water and carbon dioxide into glucose, with oxygen released along the way.