3.5: True Respiration
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The common misconception about plants is that their only energy-related metabolic process is photosynthesis:
CO2 + H2O + energy ⟶ carbohydrates + O2
However, as most eukaryotes, plants have mitochondria in cells and use aerobic (oxygen-related) respiration to obtain energy:
carbohydrates + O2 ⟶ CO2 + H2O + energy
Typically, plants spend much less oxygen in respiration than they make in photosynthesis. However, at nights plants do exactly the same as animals, and make only carbon dioxide!