Plant Adaptations

Plant Adaptations

by Bethany Fratercangelo

​What are some plant adaptations?

• ​They make their own food.

• ​Use their leaves to soak up sunlight.

• ​Use their roots to take in water and minerals.

Multiple Choice

Roots are an adaptation that help plants get __________.

• water 

• air 

• food 

• worms 

​Growth Adaptations

​Tropism: a growth movement (the way a plant moves to grow)

​

​Phototropism: a growth response to light. (when a plant grows towards a light source)

​

​Gravitropism: plants respond to the pull of the earth's gravity

​

​Plant roots respond to water.

​

​Some plants respond to touch

​

​Many plants respond to changes in the seasons.

Multiple Choice

A plant's growth response to light is called _________________.

• tropism 

• phototropism 

• gravitropism 

• breathing 

Multiple Choice

A plant's response to gravity is called _______________.

• phototropism

• gravitropsim

• touch

• leaves

​What adaptations protect plants?

• Plant spines: protect the plants from being eaten by animals.

• Poisonous sap​: keeps birds and bugs from eating the plant.

​

​*Poisonous sap does not always protect a plant from every animal. Some animals might be able to eat it, but it keeps away a lot of others.

​

​Example: deathcama: a common poisonous plant. Animals that eat it become very sick and often die.

Multiple Choice

The poisonous sap of the deathcama is an adaptation that helps the plant _________ itself.

• clean

• sleep 

• feed 

• protect 

Multiple Choice

Which is NOT an example of how plants protect themselves?

• spines 

• poisonous sap

• roots 

​How do grasses survive in prairies?

​The amount of rainfall affects which plants grow on the plains. The more it rains, the deeper the grass roots grow.

​

​Little rain falls on the shortgrass prairie. Here the grass roots are short.

​Short roots are an adaptation that helps plants absorb water near the surface of the ground where most of the rainwater stays.

​

​The tallgrasses grow in areas that get more rain. Their roots are long and can reach the water that sinks deep into the ground.

​

​Grasses do not have spines or poisonous saps.

​

​So what adaptation helps them survive?

• ​Growth: helps grass survive when part of the plant is eaten by an animal.

• ​Surviving fires: when the fire goes out, grasses send up new shoots and soon the prairie is covered with grass again.

Multiple Choice

True or False?

Grasses have spines and poisonous saps to help them survive.

• True 

• False 

Multiple Choice

What is an adaptation that helps grass survive?

• Soil 

• Growth 

• Air 

• Animals 

​Bogs

​Bogs: wet environment where the soil contains very few nutrients.

​

​The plants in bogs adapt to get their nutrients from other things.

​

​Plants found in bogs get their nutrients from insects.

• ​These plants have a sweet smelling syrup that attracts insects.

• ​The leaves trap the insects.

• ​They have liquids like the ones we have in our stomachs.

Multiple Choice

True or False?

Plants that live in bogs get all of their nutrients from the soil. 

• True 

• False