There is a saying from a wise man, “Everybody poop”. Well, it should now be changed to “everything poops” as we all know that all living things excrete waste. This makes all of us face a brilliant question, and we would love to answer it for you today. The question that bothers many of us is – do plants poop?
Here is the answer
To begin with this, we all know that all
living things excrete things they no longer need or that are harmful to their
bodies. Yes, everything excretes waste from the single-celled organism to blue
whale, everybody does this. This may come as a surprise to you that even a
microbe known as Paramecium was observed passing solid, liquid, and gaseous
waste, which can technically be considered poop. This raises a question that
what do trees excrete exactly?
Well, trees produce very little in terms of waste due to their efficient metabolic systems. Their metabolic systems are tremendously efficient that they can convert almost everything into a usable, and they can make use of it. Trees also need to excrete a number of things in order to stay healthy. The most well-known gaseous thing that they excrete is oxygen.
Oxygen is something that trees don’t need but have an excess amount of it as its a natural by-product of photosynthesis. Trees pass oxygen through the small pores in the leaves that are known as stomata. Even water vapors containing other waste products are also excreted during this process. Shall we call this whole process as a process of pooping or peeing? No, we can’t, as the entire process is more like breathing. After all, humans also expel carbon dioxide and other substances while breathing.
So what exactly is tree poop? Trees or plants store their essentials nutrients or waste into their large vacuoles that are inside plant cells. This waste serves a useful purpose for humans and other animals.