Plant and roots. Plant seedling in a plug of soil, revealing its root system. Plants obtain water and mineral nutrients from the soil through a branching network of roots (white). Above the soil are the plant's stalk and leaves (green). The leaves contain the green pigment chlorophyll, used in photosynthesis to harness the energy in sunlight to form sugars from water and carbon dioxide. This is an auricula plant, a hybrid form of the flowering plant Primula auricula.