What Do Trees Do for Dinner?

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Trees need food just like you. They make their own. The leaves do the cooking. All they need is water, air, and sunshine.

Little Green Food Factories
When leaves are green, they are making food. They take in air. They mix in water sent up from the roots. They use the heat from the sun to cook their dinner.

Pipelines in Pipelines
Inside every tree there are hollow pipes. The roots use some of these pipes to send water to the leaves. The leaves use some of these pipes to send food to the rest of the tree. Every year a tree grows more pipes. To us they look like rings in the wood.

How Trees Drink
Trees drink with their roots. They take water from the ground. Trees have more roots than they have branches. The part of the tree you can't see is bigger than the part you can! Roots have hairs like tiny straws to drink water and send it up the pipes to the leaves.

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Next lesson - Bugs, Beavers, Birch Trees, and Bluebirds

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