Mineral salt

Mineral salt [ Physiology – Nutrition - Agronomy ]

Dictionary of botanic terminology
index of names


	The solid form of a mineral as it exists in solution occurring naturally in the earth's crust needed , as nutrients, by living organisms. For example the common salt (sodium chloride)

Plants, like animals, need minerals for healthy growth and to function normally, but plant nutrition is very different from animal nutrition in several ways. In a plant high-energy food (for example, carbohydrate) is made inside the plant by photosynthesis, mineral salts from the environment are absorbed from soil water by the roots (see root hair cell) while animals get theirs from their food. Mineral salts are taken up in soluble form. When mineral salts dissolve in water they separate into particles called ions. Some of the ions travel by diffusion into the root; others are absorbed by active transport. The minerals required in the greatest amounts by plants (also called macroelements) are those containing the elements potassium, phosphorous and in particular nitrogen, (For example nitrate ions or nitrates are used by plants in the production of proteins such as enzymes, so they are important for plant growth) The mineral salts are often in short supply in the soil, which is why inorganic fertilizers are required. Plants also require magnesium in order to make chlorophyll, the green chemical that absorbs the energy of sunlight for photosynthesis. A microelement is a mineral salt required only in tiny amounts , such as calcium, iron, zinc, copper etc.

Advertising

Holdfast roots [ Botany ]
Dictionary of botanic terminology - index of names

Some species of climbing plants develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place.

Climbing plants, like the poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Boston ivy (Parthenocissus tricuspidata), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), develop holdfast roots which help to support the vines on trees, walls, and rocks. By forcing their way into minute pores and crevices, they hold the plant firmly in place. Usually the Holdfast roots die at the end of the first season, but in some species they are perennial. In the tropics some of the large climbing plants have hold-fast roots by which they attach themselves, and long, cord-like roots that extend downward through the air and may lengthen and branch for several years until they strike the soil and become absorbent roots.

Major references and further lectures:
1) E. N. Transeau “General Botany” Discovery Publishing House, 1994