Question

Give two examples where two or more parts of a single plant are used as food.

Answer 1

Hint: Important plant parts are the roots, stem, leaves and flowers. Most plants also contain fruits that have seeds. Some plant parts are destined to perform processes like photosynthesis and storage of water. Some plants that have edible rhizomes are also found. Many plant parts further require preparations before consumption.

Complete answer:
- We obtain most of our food from plants. Hence, they are a very important food source. We need food for our body to get energy.
- Plants give us fruits, vegetables, pulses and cereals which become a part of our daily diet. These things are obtained from different parts of the plant like roots, stem, leaves, flowers and fruits.
- Carrot, beetroot, radish that we eat as vegetables are obtained from the roots part. Vegetables like lettuce, spinach and cabbage have a leafy appearance and hence can be associated with the leaf part. Potatoes and ginger are obtained from the stem part of the plant. Cauliflower and broccoli have an appearance like that of a flower and hence they are obtained from the flower part.
- Fenugreek that we commonly refer to as methi, has seeds and leaves both parts of the plant which are edible.
- One of the most eaten fruit bananas has fruits, flowers and stems all three parts of the plant which are used for eating.
- In Moringa (drumstick), fruit, leaves and flower parts are consumed by people.

Note: Not all plant parts are edible. Some plant parts can cause harm because they are poisonous. Therefore one has to be extremely careful and keep the habit of checking the parts before eating. There are some plants that have toxic parts due to which many side effects can be seen in the body. For example, in Oleander the leaves and branches are very much poisonous and severely affects the digestive system, also leading to death in some cases.