Food from Plants

Food from plants comes from different plant structures that store food, such as roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds. Humans eat many common vegetables, greens, and grains in everyday meals without always knowing which part of the plant each item comes from.

Roots that store food

A plant root has the main job of storing the food needed for the plant. Because roots store a great deal of food in this way, different types of swollen roots are formed. Familiar examples of roots that people eat include carrots, radishes, and beetroots. While several vegetables need preparation, carrots are edible roots that can be eaten raw.

Edible plant stems

Stems carry out the job of supporting the plant and also store food. People eat stems that grow above the ground, such as sugarcane and the banana stem, which is sometimes cooked into soup. Stems do not always grow high above the soil; some stems grow underground, with turmeric serving as a clear example of an underground stem.

Leaves and flowers we eat

Leaves are a regular part of human food, including familiar culinary greens like curry leaves and coriander. Cabbage is also a collection of leaves, even though it may not look like a loose leaf at first glance because it cleverly keeps all of its leaves tightly hidden inside. In addition to leaves, certain flowers are harvested for eating instead of being worn on the head. Cauliflower is an edible flower, and the banana flower is another edible flower, holding parts that eventually develop into bananas.

Seeds used as everyday food

Seeds (vidhai) make up a significant portion of what humans eat every single day. A common childhood joke suggests that swallowing a seed will cause a tree to grow inside a person's stomach, but seeds are actually standard food. All the different varieties of lentils that people cook and eat are seeds. Other everyday ingredients found in food, including fenugreek and groundnuts, are also seeds produced by plants.