Friday, 14 April 2017




other modes of nutrition in plants

  • Most of the plants have green pigment called chlorophyll and can make their own food.
  • Some plants do not have chlorophyll and cannot synthesize their own food and are known as Heterotrophic plants
  • This type of nutrition can be categorized into
    1. parasitic mode of nutrition
    2. Insectivorous mode
    3. saprophytic mode of nutrition 
    4. Symbiotic mode of nutrition
  • Let us now explain these modes in detail

Parasites

  • In parasitic mode of nutrition, plants depend on other plants or animals for their nourishment.
  • Such dependent plants are called as parasites and the ones on which parasites depend are called as hosts
  • A parasite plant climbs on the host plant from which they get all the food.
  • The host does not get any benefit from the parasite.
  • Some examples of parasites are Cuscuta (akash-bel), Cassytha (amar-bel), hookworms, tapeworms, leeches, etc.

Insectivorous Plants

  • The insectivorous mode of nutrition is observed in plants like pitcher plant and the Venus fly trap.
  • These types of plants purely depend on other insects and small animals for their nutrition.
  • Pitcher plants trap small insects inside the pitcher and insects are digested by the digestive juices secreted in the pitcher.
  • Insectivorous plants grow in those soils which do not contain sufficient nitrogen mineral.
  • These types of plants are green and carry out photosynthesis to obtain a part of food.

Saprotrophs

  • Mode of nutrition in which organisms or plants that obtain their nutrition from dead and decaying organic matter is called Saprophytic mode
  • The plants which exhibit saprotrophic mode of nutrition are called as saprotrophs
  • Saprotrophs secrete digestive juices onto dead and decaying matter to dissolve it and then absorb nutrients from it.
  • Examples of saprotrophs are moulds, mushrooms, yeasts and some bacteria.

Symbiotic plants

  • In this mode of nutrition there is a close association between two different plants of different categories.
  • In such type of association both the plants get benefited.
  • For example certain fungi live in the roots of the trees. In this case tree provides nutrients to fungi and in return receives help from it to take up water and nutrients from the soil.

How nutrients are replenished in the soil

  • We know that plants continuously take nutrients from the soil in order to synthesize food. As a result of this amount of nutrients in the soil decreases.
  • Nutrients in the soil are replenished by adding fertilisers and manures.
  • Fertilisers and manures contain plants nutrients and minerals like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
  • Another way to replenish soil is to grow leguminous crops (for example gram, peas, pulses etc.) in the soil.
  • The bacterium called Rhizobium can take atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into a soluble form.
  • But Rhizobium cannot make its own food. So it lives in the roots of gram, peas, moong, beans and other legumes and provides them with nitrogen. In return plants provide food and shelter to the bacteria.
  • Thus plants and bacteria have a symbiotic relationship here.


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