The green plants exhibit autotrophic mode of nutrition.
Plants are producers, and they make their own food in the form of a sugar.
Green plants synthesise their food themselves by the process of photosynthesis. They are called autotrophs.
Plants use simple chemical substances like carbon dioxide, water and minerals for the synthesis of food.
Chlorophyll and sunlight are the essential components for photosynthesis.
Non-green plants show heterotrophic nutrition because they are unable to manufacture their own food.
Heterotrophic plants are of four types, namely, parasitic, saprophytic, insectivorous, and symbiotic.
Parasitic plants absorb food from another growing green plant through special roots. E.g. cuscuta
Saprophytic plants have no green leaves, often no leaves at all.
The roots of saprophytic plants contain living organisms called fungi.
Insectivorous plants are green plants but due to the soil being deficient in certain nutrients, they have to resort to other means of obtaining these nutrients.
The specialized structures developed to catch insects and other small animals are all modifications of the leaves.
Complex chemical substances such as carbohydrates are the products of photosynthesis.
Solar energy is stored by the leaves with the help of chlorophyll.
Oxygen is produced during photosynthesis.
Fungi derive nutrition from dead, decaying matter. They are called saprotrophs.
