plants we eat

Plants We Eat An Expository Text by Mary Clare Goller Write About Plants and Animals... Plants We Eat An Expository Text by Mary Clare Goller... Pumpkin We eat the fruit and the seeds

Plants

We Eat

An Expository Text

by Mary Clare Goller

Write About Plants and Animals

Plants

We Eat

An Expository Text

by Mary Clare Goller

People Eat Plants 4

Avocado 6

Broccoli 7

Carrot 8

Green Bean 9

Lettuce 10

Mango 11

Pumpkin 12

Radish 13

Tomato 14

Watermelon 15

Index 16

People Eat Plants

People eat parts of plants

We eat the leaves and stems

of some plants We eat

the fruits, roots, seeds, and flowers of other plants.

We eat the fruit of an avocado tree Avocados have bumpy, green skin.

Avocados are sometimes called

alligator pears Can you guess why?

flesh

seed

We eat the flower buds and stems of a

broccoli plant Broccoli is packed with good things that help us stay healthy and grow

Broccoflower is a cross between two vegetables—broccoli and cauliflower.

stem flower buds

Put the top of a carrot in water Wait a few days Then watch stems and leaves grow.

root

Carrot

We eat the root of a carrot plant Carrots are good for our eyesight.

Green Bean

We eat the seeds and sometimes the

pods of a green bean Each pod has

seeds inside.

A can of green beans holds about 45 green beans.

pod

We eat the leaves of a lettuce plant Boston, Romaine, Bibb, and iceberg are different kinds of lettuce.

Darker green lettuce has more nutrients than lighter green lettuce.

leaf

We eat the fruit of a mango tree.

It takes a mango tree about four years

to produce fruit.

Orangutans eat mangoes.

flesh seed

One giant pumpkin weighed over 590 kilograms (1,300 pounds) That’s more than a cow weighs!

Pumpkin

We eat the fruit and the seeds of a pumpkin plant The seeds taste good and give us energy.

flesh seeds

We eat the root of a radish plant

Radishes have a peppery taste.

root

Radishes have a short life cycle They are ready to pick in about a month.

We eat the fruit of a tomato plant

Tomatoes can be red, yellow, or orange They can be white or black, too.

One kind of tomato has stripes

It’s a zebra tomato

seeds

We can eat the fruit of the watermelon

plant To choose a watermelon at the store, knock on it If it sounds hollow, it’s ripe.

Some farmers grow square watermelons These melons can be stacked easily.

flesh

seeds

flower buds 7 fruit 4, 6, 11, 12, 14, 15 leaf 4, 8, 10 nutrients 10 pod 9 root 4, 8, 13 seed 4, 9, 12 stem 4 , 7, 8 vegetable 7

Grateful acknowledgment is given to the authors, artists, photographers, museums, publishers,

and agents for permission to reprint copyrighted material Every effort has been made to secure

the appropriate permission If any omissions have been made or if corrections are required,

please contact the Publisher

Photographic Credits

Cover (bg) Viktor1/Shutterstock; Title (bg) Digital Vision/Alamy Images; 2-3 D Hurst/Alamy

Images; 4-5 image100/Corbis; 6 (tl) Igor Sinicin/iStockphoto, (tr) OlgaLis/Shutterstock, (bl) Ronen

Boidek/Shutterstock, (br) PhotoDisc/Getty Images; 7 (t) Stockbyte/Getty Images, (b) Suzannah

Skelton/iStockphoto; 8 (tl) Jip Fens/Shutterstock, (tc) Zloneg/Shutterstock, (tr) PiotrMaciejewski/

Shutterstock, (b) Steve Curtis Design, Inc.; 9 (tl) Ingram Publishing/Superstock, (tc) Suzannah

Skelton/iStockphoto, (tr) photocuisine/Corbis, (b) ozdigital/iStockphoto; 10 (t) Nina Shannon/

iStockphoto, (b) Artville; 11 (tl) HP_photo/Shutterstock, (tr) Yasonya/Shutterstock, (b) Tatiana

Morozova/Shutterstock; 12 (t) farres/Shutterstock, (bl) Richmond Times-Dispatch, P Kevin Morley/

AP Images, (bc) Anthony Rosenberg/iStockphoto, (br) Stanislav Fridkin/Shutterstock; 13 (tl)

Constant/Shutterstock, (tr) Velychko/Shutterstock, (b) Allan Bergmann Jensen/Alamy Images; 14 (tl)

Andriy Doriy/Shutterstock, (tr) Ingram Publishing/Superstock, (b) Suzannah Skelton/iStockphoto;

15 (tl) 2happy/Shutterstock, (tr) Pindyurin Vasily/Shutterstock, (b) Studio Eye/Corbis; 16-IBC

(bg)Egidijus Skiparis/Shutterstock

Neither the Publisher nor the authors shall be liable for any damage that may be caused or

sustained or result from conducting any of the activities in this publication without specifically

following instructions, undertaking the activities without proper supervision, or failing to comply

with the cautions contained herein

Program Authors

Randy Bell, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Science Education, University of Virginia, Charlottesville,

Virginia; Malcolm B Butler, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Science Education, University of South

Florida, St Petersburg, Florida; Kathy Cabe Trundle, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Early Childhood

Science Education, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; Nell K Duke, Ed.D., Co-Director of

the Literacy Achievement Research Center and Professor of Teacher Education and Educational

Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan; Judith Sweeney Lederman, Ph.D.,

Director of Teacher Education and Associate Professor of Science Education, Department of

Mathematics and Science Education, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois; David W

Moore, Ph.D., Professor of Education, College of Teacher Education and Leadership, Arizona State

University, Tempe, Arizona

The National Geographic Society

John M Fahey, Jr., President & Chief Executive Officer

Gilbert M Grosvenor, Chairman of the Board

Copyright © 2011 The Hampton-Brown Company, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The National

Geographic Society, publishing under the imprints National Geographic School Publishing and

Hampton-Brown

All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by

any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information

storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher

National Geographic and the Yellow Border are registered trademarks of the National

Geographic Society

National Geographic School Publishing

Hampton-Brown

www.NGSP.com

Printed in the USA

RR Donnelley, Johnson City, TN

ISBN 978-0-7362-7669-6

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Author’s Note

Every summer, my dad planted a vegetable garden We’d make delicious salads with the veggies

I love eating foods fresh from the garden, and so I decided

to write a reference book that tells about plants we can actually eat.

A reference book is a type

of expository text I needed

to do a lot of research to write this type of text I used encyclopedias and reliable sites on the Web to find facts The great thing about

a reference book is that you can return to it for information whenever you need to

What fruits and vegetables

do you like to eat?

— Mary Clare Goller

Writing Expository

1