Life Processes

Activity . n Take a potted plant with variegated leaves – for example, money plant or crotons. n Keep the plant in a dark room for three days so that all the starch gets used up. n Now keep the plant in sunlight for about six hours.

n Pluck a leaf from the plant. Mark the green areas in it and trace them on a sheet of paper. n Dip the leaf in boiling water for a few minutes. n After this, immerse it in a beaker containing alcohol.

n Carefully place the above beaker in a water-bath and heat till the alcohol begins to boil. n What happens to the colour of the leaf? What is the colour of the solution? n Now dip the leaf in a dilute solution of iodine for a few minutes.

n Take out the leaf and rinse off the iodine solution. n Observe the colour of the leaf and compare this with the tracing of the leaf done in the beginning (Fig. . ).

n What can you conclude about the presence of starch in various areas of the leaf? (i) Absorption of light energy by chlorophyll. (ii) Conversion of light energy to chemical energy and splitting of water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. (iii) Reduction of carbon dioxide to carbohydrates.

These steps need not take place one after the other immediately. For example, desert plants take up carbon dioxide at night and prepare an intermediate which is acted upon by the energy absorbed by the chlorophyll during the day. Let us see how each of the components of the above reaction are necessary for photosynthesis. If you carefully observe a cross-section of a leaf under the microscope (shown in Fig.

. ), you will notice that some cells contain green dots. These green dots are cell organelles called chloroplasts which contain chlorophyll. Let us do an activity which demonstrates that chlorophyll is essential for photosynthesis.

Now, let us study how the plant obtains carbon dioxide. In Class IX, we had talked about stomata (Fig. . ) which are tiny pores present on the surface of the leaves.

Massive amounts of gaseous exchange takes place in the leaves through these pores for the purpose of photosynthesis. But it is important to note here that exchange of gases occurs across the surface of stems, roots and leaves as well. Since large amounts of water can also be lost through these stomata, the plant closes these pores when it does not need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis. The opening and closing of the pore is a function of the guard cells.

The guard cells swell when water flows into them, causing the stomatal pore to open. Similarly the pore closes if the guard cells shrink. Take two healthy potted plants which are nearly the same size. Keep them in a dark room for three days.

Now place each plant on separate glass plates. Place a watch-glass containing potassium hydroxide by the side of one of the plants. The potassium hydroxide is used to absorb carbon dioxide. Cover both plants with separate bell-jars as shown in Fig.

. . Use vaseline to seal the bottom of the jars to the glass plates so that the set-up is air-tight. Keep the plants in sunlight for about two hours.

Pluck a leaf from each plant and check for the presence of starch as in the above activity. Do both the leaves show the presence of the same amount of starch? What can you conclude from this activity? Figure .

Figure . Figure . Figure . Figure .

(a) Open and (b) closed stomatal pore