Plant Parts Unlabeled — free printable diagram

The parts of a plant and what each one does

A labelled plant diagram is normally used to pair each part with its job, so the parts below are listed with the function a student is expected to give. Between them they cover everything a flowering plant needs: anchoring itself and taking up water, holding itself up and moving substances around, making its own food, and reproducing.

Roots

Anchor the plant and absorb water and minerals from the soil

Stem

Holds the plant up and carries water and food between the parts

Leaves

Make food by photosynthesis, using sunlight

Flower

The reproductive part — attracts pollinators

Petals

Attract insects and birds to the flower

Seeds

Grow into new plants

Fruit

Surrounds and protects the seeds, and helps disperse them

• Feeding is split between two parts, and this is the point most worth making. The roots take up water and minerals from the soil; the leaves make the actual food. Neither does the other's job.
• Because of that split, "plant food" is a misleading phrase. A plant makes its own food in its leaves by photosynthesis — what is added to soil is minerals, not food.
• The stem is a two-way transport system: water travels up from the roots, and the sugars made in the leaves travel to wherever the plant needs them. At older key stages those two routes are named as the xylem and the phloem.
• The flower exists for reproduction. Pollination leads to seeds, the seeds are dispersed, and new plants grow — so flower, seed and fruit are best labelled as one sequence rather than three separate parts.
• Label first, then function. Asking students to write what each part does, after the labelling, is what turns the diagram from a vocabulary exercise into a science one.
• A good extension is to ask which part of a plant we eat for different foods: a carrot is a root, asparagus a stem, lettuce a leaf, broccoli a flower bud and a tomato a fruit. Celery is worth avoiding as the stem example even though it looks like one — the edible stalk is a leaf petiole, not a stem.