These plant foods we eat mostly come from plant foliage, stems, seeds and roots. Plant foods mostly break down to carbohydrates like glucose, sucrose, other sugars and Feral girl summer opossum shirt starches, and also lesser amounts of fats, and protein and an array of phytonutrients, polyphenols, etc. Beneficial microbes abound in healthy soils (containing lots of carbon, minerals, and water) and have a symbiotic relationship with plant roots. Plants employ photosynthesis to manufacture these sugars and starches, proteins, enzymes, etc, of which as much as 40% or more is exuded from the roots of host plants to feed soil microbes that have the ability to render inorganic minerals water soluble ready for direct usage by the plant. Also, microbes like mycorrhiza fungi form long tubule networks to bring to plant roots lots of moisture and nutrients from afar that were previously inaccessible. Without microbes both plants and humans could likely not survive for very long. And roots are so very important because they interface between microbes and minerals, feeding both the plant and the microbes, and ultimately allow plant growth for animal and human foods.
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