SilverRabbit
New Member
Plants get there nutrients from elements referred to as mineral salts. Mineral salts are water soluble. When water flows through the soil, the elements dissolve into it and are carried along. When plants absorb water, they are bound to be absorbing some mineral salts. However, the amount they absorb will vary widely, depending upon what has been deposited in the soil. Plants in the wild can compensate somewhat for a deficiency of these mineral salts, but they cannot do so indefinitely. Areas in which little is naturally added to the soil soon become desolate, having little plant life. That which they do have will be composed exclusively of those forms that have mastered the art of survival under the harshest conditions.
Unlike all other living things, plants do not simply consume material and extract energy from it. They are incapable of doing so. Instead, plants have evolved an entirely different method for assuring themselves of the "food" on which their growth is based. They manufacture it, they make their own. This process by which a plant produces its own food is called photosynthesis, and chlorophyll is the central element in the process. Whithout chlorophyll, it cannot be done.
Chlorophyll absorbs the rays of sunlight, and uses them in combination with water and carbon dioxide to generate glucose, the substance that fuels the growth of a plant. Carbon dioxide is an essential ingredient in the production of glucose. Oxygen is given off by a plant as a by-product fo this process.
Unlike all other living things, plants do not simply consume material and extract energy from it. They are incapable of doing so. Instead, plants have evolved an entirely different method for assuring themselves of the "food" on which their growth is based. They manufacture it, they make their own. This process by which a plant produces its own food is called photosynthesis, and chlorophyll is the central element in the process. Whithout chlorophyll, it cannot be done.
Chlorophyll absorbs the rays of sunlight, and uses them in combination with water and carbon dioxide to generate glucose, the substance that fuels the growth of a plant. Carbon dioxide is an essential ingredient in the production of glucose. Oxygen is given off by a plant as a by-product fo this process.