Do Plants Breathe
 Plants require oxygen for respiration to occur and they also give out carbon dioxide . Hence , plants have systems in place that ensure the availability of oxygen . Plants , unlike animals , have no specialised organs for gaseous exchange but they have stomata and lenticels for this purpose . 
> There are several reasons why plants can get along without respiratory organs . First , each plant part takes care of its own gas - exchange needs . There is very little transport of gases from one plant part to another . Second , plants do not present great demands for gas exchange . Roots , stems and leaves respire at rates far lower than animals do . Only during photosynthesis large volumes of gases are exchanged and each leaf is well adapted to take care of its own needs during these periods . When cells photosynthesise , availability of oxygen is not a problem in these cells since oxygen is released within the cell . Third , the distance that gases must diffuse even in large , bulky plants is not great . Each living cell in a plant is located quite close to the surface of the plant .
> This is facilitated by the loose packing of parenchyma cells in leaves , stems and roots , which provide an interconnected network spaces The complete combustion of glucose , which produces CO₂ and H₂O as end products , yields energy most of which is given out as heat . 
> The strategy that the plant cell uses is to catabolise the glucose molecule in such a way that not all the liberate energy goes out as heat . The key is to oxidise glucose not in one step but in several small steps enabling some steps be just large enough such that the energy released can be coupled to ATP synthesis . During the process of respiratio oxygen is utilised and carbon dioxide , water and energy are released as products .