Photosynthesis is Incredible if You Think About it

It's alchemy and one thing everything depends on

Hiya!

Earlier this week, I found a small wooden shelf left on a corner nearby for free and decided to take it home. I removed the back, sanded it down, painted it, and now it’s my new — desperately needed— plant stand.

I’ve always loved plants but was a bit of a grim reaper of them until about two years ago when I discovered succulents — which are like the training wheels of caring for plants since they require little maintenance.

Since then, I’ve learned more about plants and now have quite a collection. The more I learn about them, the more fascinated I become. I mean, take photosynthesis, the fundamental function of plants, for example. We learn about it in school growing up, but when was the last time you really thought about what it means?

Photosynthesis Basics

As you probably know, photosynthesis is the method plants use to create oxygen. But the details of how plants and other autotrophs accomplish this, and the ripple effects of its completion, are where the magic is.

If you don’t know, autotrophs are organisms that create their food from inorganic substances using heat or light as an energy source. Plants are one type of autotrophs, as are algae, fungi, and some bacteria. Most, but not all, autotrophs perform photosynthesis.

The process of photosynthesis requires three things — water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and sunlight. I used to think sunlight and water were a type of food source for plants, but I was wrong—kind of, they’re more like ingredients. Plants use the three ingredients to create glucose (a form of sugar) as their food source. I could leave it at that, but I became curious about how exactly this conversion happens.

Then I found a resource by the Smithsonian that went into further detail. It says there are tiny holes in a plant’s leaves, branches, stems, roots, and flowers that carbon dioxide seeps into.

Similar to carbon dioxide, plants also absorb water. All plants require water, but how much varies widely — some plants live in or on the water while others, like succulents and cacti, require very little. Most plants use their roots to collect water, but they can absorb some through their leaves, too — particularly plants that thrive in humid environments.

Once a plant absorbs enough water and carbon dioxide, it uses the energy from sunlight to convert them into glucose molecules like alchemy. The sun’s light and heat create a chemical reaction that breaks down CO2 and H2O molecules, then rearranges them into glucose and oxygen.

Once the plant produces glucose, its mitochondria turn it into the energy it uses to grow and heal from damage. Since plants don’t need the leftover oxygen molecules it captured from water or carbon dioxide, the plant releases them back into the atmosphere through the same holes the CO2 enters.

As if that’s not cool enough, we can go further.

In a plant’s cell, tiny structures called chloroplasts store the sun’s energy like a small battery. Then, inside the chloroplasts is chlorophyll, which absorbs pigments in the light. Most plants prefer blue and red light waves in the sun’s light and then reflect the green waves back—which is why plants typically look green.

Amazingly, there are still a couple more stages or degrees of the photosynthesis process that I could delve into. There are light-dependent versus light-independent reactions, and two other types of photosynthesis — C3 photosynthesis and C4 photosynthesis. But this newsletter is already getting pretty long, so feel free to check out this resource via National Geographic if you want to learn more.

Still, even without those extra steps and variations, photosynthesis is truly astounding if you think about it. After all, alchemy aside, just consider its impacts of it on a larger scale.

The Power of Photosynthesis

To put it plainly, without photosynthesis, none of us would be here—not you, me, anyone, or most currently living animals could survive without it. Earth would be a nearly lifeless planet considering all land animals require plants to survive — both as a food source and for the oxygen they produce.

I mean, plants capture and store the sun’s energy like a battery. Then animals, primarily herbivores, feast on plants and, therefore, indirectly receive energy from the sun. Then carnivores eat herbivores and double indirectly receive the sun’s energy.

So, in a way, I guess this means that you and I are also batteries, kinda like plants. Along with everyone else we know and all living things on the Earth’s surface. And doesn’t this mean that our planet is just one giant battery full of infinitely smaller batteries, all containing the Sun’s energy?

Plus, plants proprogate!

It’s one of my favorite things about them. One plant can become many plants by basically cloning itself, and it’s probably one of the coolest discoveries I’ve learned in the last year — and why I’m quickly running out of space. This feature allows plants to duplicate themselves like reproducing batteries.

Not to mention, with global warming intensifying at a terrifying rate, we’re all well aware that plants absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and replenish it with more oxygen, and it’s photosynthesis that’s responsible for it. This means literally that our entire future, and all future generations, depend entirely on photosynthesis.

Perspective Shift

You can probably guess that I’m a huge fan of nature. I grew up climbing trees and playing outside until dusk, even in the city. I was also fortunate to attend an environmentally-oriented school for grades 6 through 8, during which I learned how to identify native plants, which ones are edible, and their basic medicinal uses.

But I never understood the biology of how plants work until now for some reason. Perhaps previous lessons were incompatible or, more likely, I didn’t care when I was younger and in school being forced to learn it. Sprinkle a dash of assuming I’m terrible at math and science and maybe it’s not such a surprise.

Anyways, now that I’m older, I’m nothing short of dumbfounded by the magic of plants and their role not just in my existence but in all living things on the surface of the planet. We owe everything to them.

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Photo by Lukas Tennie on Unsplash