Common Plant Characteristics

Roots and Shoots

Terrestrial (land) plants share a few defining characteristics, structural as well as functional. Perhaps the most basic shared feature of most plants is their division into shoots and roots. Each part is essential in its own way to the plants' ability to survive on land.

The root, defined as the portion of a plant beneath the soil, brings in essential water and minerals from the soil. It also anchors the plant to the ground, providing stability.

The shoot includes all aerial plant structures such as stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits. The shoot gathers the carbon dioxide and light energy necessary for photosynthesis, provides surfaces for gas exchange (carbon dioxide in and oxygen out), and contains the plant's reproductive organs. Each of these parts, the root and the shoot, is dependent on the other, for roots cannot perform photosynthesis and shoots cannot take in water and inorganic nutrients (food).