Ngā rau o te rākau ❘ Tree leaves

He aha te take o ngā rau o te rākau?

Ko te take matua o ngā rau ko te ahotakakame.

Mā te ahotakakame te tupu e mahi kai māna anō.

Ko tā ngā rau o te rākau, he miti i te hauhā o te hau takiwā me te pūngao aho o Tama-nui-te rā.

Ka kōmitimiti ngēnei huānga me te wai hei whakaputa i te kūhuka me te te hāora.

What is the purpose of leaves?

Photosynthesis is the main purpose of leaves.

Plants use photosynthesis to make their own food.

Plant leaves absorb carbon dioxide from the air and light energy from the Sun.

They combine these with water to produce glucose and oxygen.

Te hopunga o te aho – te kanokāriki me ngā pūmāota

Ko te pūmāota tētehi wāhanga o ngā pūtau o te rau rākau.

Nā te kanokāriki kei roto i ngā pūmāota, ka taea e ngā rau te huri i te pūngao aho o Tama-nui-te rā hei pūngao matū.

Nā te kanokāriki e kākāriki ai ngā pūmāota me ngā rau.

Catching sunlight – chlorophyll and chloroplasts

Chloroplasts are part of the cells of a tree’s leaves.

Due to the chlorophyll contained in chloroplasts, leaves can transform the light energy of the sun into chemical energy.

Chlorophyll is what makes chloroplasts and leaves green.

Ka taea e nga tupu te whakaputu i te kūhuka hei māngaro, arā, he raupapa roa noa iho o ngā rāpoi ngota kūhuka.

Plants can store glucose as starch, which is made up of long chains of glucose molecules.

Ka whakaputua te māngaro e ngā tipu hei kai māna ā muri ake nei, hei kai mā ngāna uri rānei. Ka pērā hoki te kānga mā ngōna kākano, me te kūmara mā ngōna kōpura.

Starch can be stored by plants for future use or as food for their offspring. Corn does this via its seeds, and kūmara does it using tubers.

He tini hoki ngā painga o te ahotakakame ki a tātou te tangata

• Ka kaingia e tātou te māngaro hei kākano, hei hua, hei purapura rānei.
• Ka whakairotia te kōhiwi tōtara e te tohunga whakairo.
• Ka rarangatia ngā rau o te harakeke e ngā kaiwhatu.
• Ka whakaritea e tātou he rongoā mai i ngā rau o te kawakawa.
• Ka mutu, ko tā te ahotakakame he whakaputa hāora kia whai hā tonu ai te mataora, mō nāianei, ā, mō ake tonu atu.

Photosynthesis benefits us in many ways

• We eat starch as seeds, tubers or fruit.
• Master carvers use the heartwood of tōtara to build waka and wharenui.
• Weavers use the leaves of the harakeke.
• We can prepare rongoā from the leaves of the kawakawa.
• What’s more, photosynthesis produces oxygen.

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