Plants feed themselves through photosynthesis, a process that turns sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into sugar and oxygen. The work takes place inside chloroplasts, tiny structures packed with the green pigment chlorophyll, which absorbs red and blue light while reflecting green. Energy captured from the light is used to split water molecules, releasing oxygen as a by-product and producing chemical fuel in the form of ATP. That fuel then powers a second set of reactions, often called the Calvin cycle, in which carbon dioxide drawn in through pores in the leaves is fixed into sugars. The plant uses these sugars to grow and stores the surplus as starch.
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