ReadgateNature · Insight Card
What trees are really made of
Plants build themselves largely out of air.
It is easy to assume a tree comes mostly from soil. In fact, most of its mass comes from the air. Through photosynthesis, a plant pulls carbon dioxide from the air around it. Using sunlight as energy, it combines that gas with water. The result is sugar, the plant's basic fuel.
From that sugar, the plant builds wood, bark, and leaves. Soil still matters, but mainly for water and minerals. The bulk of the tree itself is captured carbon. A tall trunk in a forest is, in a real sense, captured air. It got turned solid by nothing more than sunlight and time.
A towering tree is largely thin air, caught and made solid by sunlight.
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