[Biology Class Notes] on Interesting Facts About Nutrition in Plants Pdf for EXAM

All living organisms require some source of energy and minerals and nutrients to ensure the proper functioning of the body and that their life process and growth goes smoothly. As you may know that we fulfill our energy requirements through food which is known to be the primary source of energy. Along with animals, human beings and even plants require some particular nutrients for their growth and development. These nutrients are the important nutrients that are found in our food such as vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, etc. Plants are the only living things that can synthesize their own food by the biological process that is known as photosynthesis. During this process, the plants utilize sunlight to synthesize the important nutrients using carbon dioxide and water. This process can be done only by green plants as they require green pigments known as chlorophyll for photosynthesis and generate oxygen as a by-product.

Types of Nutrition

There are mainly two types of nutrients based on their food consuming ability:

1. Autotrophic Nutrition: All organisms who have capability to synthesize their own food are known to be autotrophic in nature. All green plants are known to exhibit autotrophic nutrition as they synthesize food with the help of sunlight, carbon dioxide, chlorophyll pigments, water and other essential minerals from soil.

2. Heterotrophic Nutrition: An organism which depends on other organisms for their food are known to be heterotrophic in nature. Both vertebrates and humans are considered as heterotrophic organisms as they depend on other sources for their food.

Some Interesting Facts about Nutrition

Some key facts regarding nutrients in plants are:

1. Plants are the only living organisms that are capable of synthesizing their own food by using direct sunlight, carbon dioxide, and other essential minerals obtained from the soil. Because of this reason, they are known to be autotrophic in nature.

2. Plants absorb water, minerals, and food through their own system called the vascular system. As they absorb the water and minerals through their roots via the xylem as the xylem helps in the upward movement of water and minerals.

3. Plants have both autotrophic and heterotrophic modes of nutrition. Plants that have chlorophyll pigments in their cells are able to synthesize their own food but the plant which lacks chlorophyll in their cells depends on other autotrophic plants for their food and energy requirements and such plants are known to be heterotrophic in nature.

4. Plants, in general, need more sunlight in comparison to other organisms, and due to this reason, they can adapt themselves into triangular shapes so that they can trap the maximum amount of sunlight required for photosynthesis.  

5. The Location where photosynthesis occurs in plants is known as the chloroplast and this chloroplast contains chlorophyll pigments. The Chloroplasts are surrounded by a double membrane and contain a third inner membrane, called the thylakoid membrane, which forms long folds within the organelle.