Animals use light to see, but plants use light for a very different reason. They use it to make food. Making food with light is called photosynthesis.
Photo means “light,” and synthesis (SIN-thuh-sis) means “to put together.” To make food, a plant puts together light, a green pigment called chlorophyll, carbon dioxide, and nutrients.
For almost all plants, the job of collecting light is up to the leaves. Look at a leaf. You can tell what kind of light the plant lives in—low, medium, or bright. Leaves that live mostly in shade are built to collect more light or to make good use of what little light they receive. In a sunny area, leaves have a different problem: heat. They can easily collect all the light they need, but they need to stay cool in the hot sun.
