Plant and Mineral Nutrition
Plant Nutrition
All living organisms require food to survive, grow and reproduce so every organism takes in food and utilizes the food constituents for its requirements of growth. Nutrition in plants is a process of synthesis of food, its breakdown and utilization for various functions in the body.
The chemical substances in food are called nutrients. For example, CO2, water, minerals, carbohydrate, protein, fats, etc. Green plants can make their own organic food from simple substances like water and carbon dioxide through the process of photosynthesis and are called autotrophs. But the non-green plants and other organisms which cannot prepare their own food and obtain nutrition from green plants are called heterotrophs.
Mineral Nutrition
Carbohydrates are synthesized by the process of photosynthesis. Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are the main elements in carbohydrates, fats and proteins. In addition to these three elements, plants need a variety of elements for their survival. These are referred to as mineral elements. They are absorbed by the root system of plants in the form of their salts.
The study of how plants get mineral elements and utilize them for their growth and development is called mineral nutrition. If the minerals are not available to plants, specific symptoms appear due to the deficiency of a particular element.