Plants do not have an excretory system; how do they excrete waste materials?
How do Plants Excrete Waste Without an Excretory System
Plants do have a mechanism to carry out excretion.
1. During photosynthesis, oxygen is released as a byproduct. This oxygen is the excretory product that gets released by the process of diffusion.
2. Plants perform transpiration, a process by which water molecules absorbed from the soil via the root goes to the aerial parts of the plant. Whenever the amount of water absorbed is more than the plant’s need for biological processes, the excess water goes to the aerial parts of the plant body and gets released in the form of water droplets or water vapour through tiny pores present in the leaves, called as stomata by the transpiration process.
3. Plants eliminate excess salt and minerals in the form of crystals like sodium oxalate and calcium carbonate
4. Sometimes, plants eliminate waste products through the soil via their roots.
5. Sometimes the waste materials are collected in the vacuoles of the aging cells, which ultimately fall off the plant. These ageing cells can be present in the stem, leaf, or bark of the plant, which gradually sheds off
– Written By Debdoot Chaudhuri
