Page 75 - ICSE Science 3 : E-book

Parts of Plants We Eat

We get most of our food from plants. The parts of plants that we eat as food are

called edible parts of plants. These include roots, stems, leaves, fruits, fl owers,
seeds and nuts.

Roots we eat

Roots of some plants such as

radish, carrot, beetroot and
sweet potato are edible. These

roots are hard, swollen and fl eshy.
They grow underground and store
radish carrot beetroot sweet potato
food. Therefore, they are called
Some root vegetables
root vegetables.

Stems we eat

The stems of some plants are edible and are called stem vegetables. They can be
further divided into the edible stems that grow above the ground and those that

grow underground. Sugar cane and sugar beet are the edible stems that grow
above the ground, whereas potato, ginger and onion grow underground.

sugar cane sugar beet potato ginger onion

Some edible stems that grow Some edible stems that grow
above the ground underground

Leaves we eat

Many plant leaves such as cabbage, lettuce and spinach are eaten by us. These

edible leaves are known as leafy vegetables. They are eaten either raw (in the form
of salad) or cooked.

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