Understanding Essential Plant Processes and Food Crops

**Chlorophyll Function**

Chlorophyll function: The process by which plants absorb CO2 for subsequent decomposition; oxygen is released by this means.

**Starch**

Starch: A polysaccharide like starch that is in seeds, tubers, and roots used by plants. It is used primarily in the food industry in the elaboration of flour.

**Taro**

Taro: A tropical plant used as a vegetable for its corm. It is also edible as a vegetable, but it is indigestible when raw due to substances in the ergastic cells of the plant. It grows where there is a lot of water.

**Corm**

Corm: A thickened underground stem with a swollen base and vertical growth. It contains nodes and bulges where the buds come out, and it is covered by layers of leaves.

**Cassava**

A perennial shrub, Cassava, of the family Euphorbiaceae, is extensively cultivated in South America for its starchy root, which is valuable as a food source. It does not resist high frosts and requires high levels of humidity and sun.

**Yam**

Yam: A genus of tuber plants that are widely used in the tropics for food.

**Sweet Potato**

Sweet potato: A plant cultivated for its edible tuberous root. It is known as effective in the fight against malnutrition.

**Potato**

Potato: The food base of millions of people, it is a culinary delight in many regions. It belongs to the Solanaceae family and is cultivated around the world for its edible tubers.

**Tuber**

Tuber: A thickened, modified underground stem where reserves of nutrients accumulate for the plant.

**Rhizome**

Rhizome: A subterranean stem with several buds that grows horizontally, emitting herbaceous shoots and roots from its nodes. During the older parts' death, new shoots are produced every year.

**Bulb**

Bulb: Underground organs for storing nutrients. Plants of this type have structures called bulbous plants.

**FAO**

FAO: The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations conducts international activities to eradicate hunger. It helps improve agricultural activities in countries with hunger to ensure good nutrition.

**Etiolation**

Etiolation: The phenomenon by which plants grow in the dark. It is a pattern of plants lacking light in the darkness, characterized by elongated and slightly woody stems, small and rudimentary leaves, and little presence of chlorophyll.

**Chlorophyll**

Chlorophyll: A pigment of green plants and certain bacteria that participates in the process of photosynthesis.