plants that use the C3 pathway of carboxylation and do not have specialized Kranz anatomy, i.e. the majority of autotrophic plants. See also Kranz anatomy.

Plants that produce a three-carbon compound during photosynthesis, including most trees and agricultural crops such as rice, wheat, soybeans, potatoes and vegetables.

Plants (e.g., soybean, wheat, and cotton) whose carbon- fixation products have three carbon atoms per molecule. Compared with C4 plants, C3 plants show a greater increase in photosynthesis with a doubling of CO2 concentration and less decrease in stomatal conductance, which results in an increase in leaf-level water-use efficiency.

a plant that fixes carbon exclusively through the Calvin cycle; named for the three-carbon compound that is initially formed

A C3 plant is one that produces phosphoglyceric acid (a molecule that has three carbon atoms) as a stable intermediary in the first step in photosynthesis. Over 95% of the plants on earth are C3, incl [..]