MadSci Network: Botany |
Plants do not have lungs but passively exchange gases, mainly oxygen and carbon dioxide, through tiny pores in their leaves and young stems termed stomata. Each stoma consists of two guard cells. Stomata can open and close by swelling and shrinking their guard cells, respectively. Plants need to limit gas exchange to prevent excessive loss of water vapor via transpiration. Older stems having openings termed lenticels. Lenticels cannot close. Plants usually produce more oxygen then they require, via photosynthesis. However, all plant parts continually use oxygen for cellular respiration in mitochondria, just as our cells do. Some plants have tissues with large intercellular air spaces, termed aerenchyma. This allows internal movement of oxygen from aboveground parts to underground, nonphotosynthetic parts such as roots, rhizomes, corms, tubers and bulbs If you search madsci.org or google.com for the terms mentioned above, you can find a lot more information such as photos, size and number of stomata, aerenchyma and lenticels.
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on Botany.