The orange carrot hidden whole in the soil

Yeehaw! Let’s bet on who can pull up the biggest one!

"Heave-ho! Let’s bet on who can pull up the biggest one!"

Bang-gu and Didi are in the garden, heaving and heaving!!

They’re just pulling on the leaves, but the soil beneath their feet is shaking. Then, pop! It comes out whole.

You know how a long, orange lump comes up from under the soil? Green leaves on top, an orange body below. Hey, this is a carrot, isn’t it?!

That carrot I’d been crunching on every day as a side dish had been buried whole in the soil. The leaves peeked out above ground, while the body was tucked away beneath.

An old lady who was picking carrots next to me saw my dirt-covered carrot and laughed heartily, saying, “Wow, you picked a nice thick one there.” I appreciate the compliment… but wait, why was this in the ground? So is this orange body the root?

Banggu, munching away on the carrot he pulled up without even brushing off the dirt, says, “A carrot is just a carrot~” Ugh, I shouldn’t have asked you.

But I just can’t help being curious. Why is it orange if it grows in the dirt? Why do the leaves look like they’re not meant to be eaten? My mind is buzzing with questions. I checked out “Plant Exploration” on WAGZAK JUMP. Ah, this is it!

▶ Plant Exploration Videos with Didi

Shrinking to the size of an ant and venturing inside a plant

“Today, we’re going to shrink down to the size of an ant and go inside a green plant!” As soon as our plant expert friend, Ppuri, shouted that, I felt like my body was shrinking. The blade of grass right in front of me suddenly looked as big as a skyscraper. Wow!

Purumi jumped up and down, shouting, “Hey, we’ve really gotten tiny!” while Saerom spun around, saying, “So this is what a leaf looks like~”

Then Purum asked Popo, “But how do plants stay upright without falling over?” Oh, I was wondering that too! Popo just grinned. “You’ll find out once we go inside.”

Looking around, they were all familiar-looking plants. “Oh, dogtooth grass!” Purum pointed. Saerom was delighted, saying, “There are dandelions too—the ones I see on the street every day!”

We pass these plants every day, but seeing them right up close felt like a whole new world.

Popo asked, “Shall we start with the roots?” and pressed a button, and the roots popped right up from the ground!

“Huh, all the roots look different?” Saerom tilted her head in confusion. It was true. Some were thick and plump, while others were thin as threads, spreading out widely. I thought they were all the same kind of root, but they weren’t.

What had been hidden in the soil were the roots.

I grabbed a root and tried pulling it out. Phew, it wouldn’t budge an inch! It was firmly anchored in the ground.

Ah, so this is why plants don’t fall over even when the wind blows. I’ve got my answer. That’s also why the soil shifted when I pulled just the leaves in the garden earlier.

When I looked closely at the tip of the root, I saw it sucking up water from the soil—just like a straw.

Just then, Popo casually chimed in. “Some plants store all the nutrients they suck up right in their roots… like radishes and carrots.”

Yikes! That carrot I pulled up earlier!!

So that’s why it was buried whole in the soil. The carrot was the root! It had been carefully storing nutrients in the soil, which is why it was so sweet and crunchy.

Radishes and sweet potatoes are all part of the same family. Hehe, I’ve been munching on roots every day.

Stems are like elevators that carry water

Now it’s the stems’ turn. Saerom asked, “Popo, are tree trunks stems too? Their bark is really thick.” “That’s right. Stems not only support the plant but also protect it from the cold and bugs,” Popo replied.

Then he split the stem open to show them, and inside were thin, straw-like tubes running all the way through.

“Ah!” Purum was the first to figure it out. “So the water the roots absorb travels up through this!” That’s right. The stem was like an elevator carrying water upward.

Leaves are factories that make food from sunlight

Next up were the leaves. Popo said, “Leaves are little factories that make food from sunlight.” Factories? These thin leaves?

When Saerom asked, “But this leaf isn’t doing anything yet,” Popo replied, “Should we put some ingredients in it, then?”

As we added sunlight, water, and air—tap, tap, tap—the leaf sparkled! and started making nutrients. Just like a real factory!

Saerom clapped her hands. “So that’s why plants grow so fast in sunny spots!”

Poppo added, “The nutrients made this way travel through another pathway called the phloem to every part of the plant.” Huh? So there’s a separate path for water (the xylem) and one for nutrients (the phloem). Two pathways inside a single stem?

Just then, Saerom shouted, “Whoa! Water’s leaking out of the leaves!” Sure enough, tiny droplets of water had formed inside the clear plastic bag covering the leaves.

The water had turned into water vapor and escaped through the tiny holes in the leaves (called stomata). They call this transpiration. So plants sweat just like we do!

Saerom joked, “I wish I could soak up the sunlight and do some photosynthesis too~,” and we all laughed. Hehe.