PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

 PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

Eyebrows may arch up in delight or despair as to why this item here. Having been meandering through a variety of topics for blog readers, why not on this –more as an appraisal than as any display of professional command has been my thought for a few hours now.

While, we keep moving through our towns or cities, we passively notice many trees or gardens in our vicinity. Just by long term familiarity we recognize a few trees distinctly such as Coconut or Neem or Banana and a few others. For most other items we do not even know their names or identities; of course there could be always a few exceptions. That being our disposition to plant life, it is far-fetched to expect the average citizen to know of the functioning [Physiology] of trees / plants in general.

It would be quite a surprise if we understand that each plant is a silent factory handling a variety of substances from the soil/ air / rain water and building up matter that makes our life pleasant on the planet. Each green plant big or small generates tons of Oxygen in its life time by scavenging carbon-dioxide from the air.

Why should a green plant be releasing Oxygen by removing carbon-dioxide? It is nature’s arrangement in which all animals and non-green life forms can only use oxygen; they cannot release oxygen. Using the oxygen of the atmosphere all life forms [green plants too included] perform the act of ‘breathing’ [Respiration]. Unless they breathe they cannot digest the food consumed. When the food is ‘digested’ tissues are added, all growth substances are utilized and some residues are left as waste. The gaseous waste is carbon-dioxide. The oxygen –carbon-dioxide cycles which occur  through all life [plants and animals] is the key to  life itself. For living, all need oxygen to digest food; and so, they liberate carbon-dioxide as a waste. The carbon –dioxide released from living systems should be harvested; otherwise, the carbon load will upset the breathing process. The carbon-dioxide removal from the air is done by green plants during day time. At night they do not take carbon-dioxide [there are exceptions-no doubt]; this is because, the carbon so taken must be ‘assembled’ to form carbohydrate [the staple food as Rice/ Wheat/ grains]. In doing so, the green plants release Oxygen by removing carbon from air. This event is ‘Photosynthesis’ –as it utilizes the energy of sunlight to fix carbon into carbohydrate. Within the green plants, photosynthesis is linked to many other internal reactions forming proteins, fats and so on, all of which are used as food for humans and fodder for animals. In a nutshell, the entire operations of Agriculture, serve only to help life of humans and all animals domesticated.

If we imagine a world bereft of green plants, human and other forms of life to stay on the planet, a vast complex of global network of factories for food production, oxygen release and carbon-dioxide removal from air would have to work round the clock,  at a recurring cost of several trillion dollars annually. Then life would not be worth living, paying several million dollars for breathing and eating. That is why advocacy of green plant cover for the earth is an absolute necessity. Green plants are SILENT FACTORIES, mercilessly felled by greed of humans. That in brief is the vital physiology of plant life.

Prof. K. Raman.