1. How do Plant Features Help Plants?
Danielle Ruff
CES
3rd Grade

2. Plant Parts
A trait is a characteristic, or feature, of a plant or animal.
Plants have different traits.
What are some traits of an orange?
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3. Plant Parts
Plants have parts that help them survive, or stay alive.

4. Plant Parts Their roots take in the water they need from the soil.
Some plants also have thorns that keep animals from eating them.

5. Plant parts
A feature that helps a living thing survive is called an adaptation.
Sharp spines are one kind of adaptation.
They protect plants such as cacti from being eaten by animals.
Some adaptations are not parts.
They are ways plants or animals act that help them survive. Sunflowers turn slowly during the day to keep facing the sun. This helps them get as much sunlight as they can.

6. Adaptations Help Plants Grow
Plants need nutrients, water, sunlight, and air.
Many plants have adaptations that help them get these things so that they can grow.
Wood is an adaptation that helps trees grow tall.
In a forest, the tallest plants get the most sunlight. Tree trunks are made of wood, which is very strong. It can support the tree as it grows upward. Without wood, a tree would bend or fall over.

7. Adaptations Help Plants Grow
Vines have an adaptation for growth, too.
Their stems can wrap around other plants. This helps them grow toward the sunlight.
Roots are used for getting water and nutrients.
Some plants have fat roots, in which they store food. They use this food for growth.

8. Adaptations Help Plants Grow
Without water, a plant can’t grow.
Some desert plants have roots that grow deep into the soil.
They reach water that is far under the ground.
Other desert plants have roots that spread out just under the surface.
This lets them take in water quickly when it rains.

9. Adaptations That Help Plants Reproduce
Some plants use seeds to reproduce, or produce new living things.
All living things reproduce.

10. Adaptations That Help Plants Reproduce
The flowers of plants need pollen from other flowers to make seeds.
They have adaptations that help them get that pollen.
Their smell, color, and shape may attract insects and other animals.
The animals get pollen on them and carry it from flower to flower.

11. Adaptations That Help Plants Reproduce
Sometimes seeds need to spread to new places to grow.
Some plants have seeds that stick to animals.
The animals spread the seeds as they move about.
Other plants have tiny seeds that the wind can carry.
Some seeds can float on water.
They may be carried far from the parent plant.