wiz-icon
MyQuestionIcon
MyQuestionIcon
1
You visited us 1 times! Enjoying our articles? Unlock Full Access!
Question

Name the elements that are important for plants.


Open in App
Solution

Elements required by plants:

Macronutrients in Plants

  1. Like humans, plants are living things that need nourishment to live, grow, reproduce, and develop.
  2. Macronutrients are nutrients that provide plants energy and are needed in greater quantities to maintain development and growth.
  3. Examples of these essential elements for crops are nitrogen (N), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), phosphorous (P), magnesium (Mg), sulfur (S), oxygen (O), carbon (C), and hydrogen (H).
  4. The most significant of them are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium because they have a direct impact on plant growth and really help to form different portions of the plant.
  5. Additionally, nitrogen is a crucial part of chlorophyll and is essential for photosynthesis.

Micronutrients in Plants

  1. Micronutrients, often known as trace elements or minerals, are a different group of nutrients from macronutrients that are needed in very small amounts to support development or metabolism.
  2. Boron (B), iron (Fe), chlorine (Cl), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), molybdenum (Mo), and nickel are a few essential micronutrients (Ni).

Role of Macro and Micronutrients

  1. Plants require both macro- and micronutrients as essential nutrients to maintain all of their metabolic requirements, without which:
  2. A plant is unable to finish its life cycle.
  3. For a plant, other elements cannot take the place of a certain function.
  4. Since each vital ingredient is closely related to plant nutrition, plants cannot obtain a complete diet.
  5. Proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and other substances or essential plant macromolecules all require carbon to create.

Macronutrients in Plants and Their Functions

Nitrogen:

  1. Because it is a crucial component of enzymes, proteins, and amino acids, metabolism.
  2. Affects vegetative development and germination.
  3. It is crucial to photosynthesis because it is a part of chlorophyll.
  4. Accountable for the quickening of leaf growth.
  5. Provides the plants with their green colour.

Phosphorus:

  1. Emergence of roots
  2. Maintaining high standards for seed production, fruiting, and flowering.
  3. Energy storage and transportation.
  4. Disease resistance

Potassium:

  1. Affects the absorption of water.
  2. Increasing resistance to drought
  3. A rise in cold tolerance.
  4. Fostering resistance to insect pests and fungus illnesses.
  5. Protein, sugar, and fat synthesis.
  6. Reduced growth, burning or yellowing of the leaf margins, and dead patches on older leaves are all symptoms of potassium deficiency in plants.
  7. Additionally, excessive levels are not so good because they interfere with the absorption of other nutrients like magnesium, calcium, and nitrogen.

Micronutrients in Plants and Their Functions

Boron:

  1. Growing young crops slowly, deformed leaves, dying growing tips, dark brown lesions on foliage, poor flowering, and chlorosis or yellowing of leaves are only a few of the indicators of a boron deficit in plants.
  2. Boron should be applied to crops prior to the flowering stage; doing so afterwards is not advantageous.
  3. Transport of sugar.
  4. Creation of amino acids.
  5. Creation of the cell wall.
  6. Reproduction of crops.
  7. Fruiting, flowering, a rise in crop quality.

Iron:

  1. Chlorophyll synthesis.
  2. Photosynthesis.
  3. Enzyme structure.
  4. Affects nitrogen fixation, nitrogen reduction, and energy transmission.
  5. Formation of lignin. Younger leaves are harmed by iron deficiency in plants because it produces vein-to-vein yellowing.

Manganese:

  1. Influences the synthesis of chloroplasts.
  2. Engaging in active photosynthetic activity.
  3. Enzyme activation, germination, and crop maturity are all factors.
  4. Chlorosis, yellowing of the veins in young leaves, is another effect of Mn deficiency.

Zinc:

  1. Early stages of growth.
  2. Growth of the fruit, seed, and root.
  3. Throughout the photosynthetic process.
  4. Hormone balance in plants.
  5. Stunted growth, shorter internodes, smaller immature leaves, and yellowing on the lower leaves are all symptoms of zinc deficiency.

flag
Suggest Corrections
thumbs-up
1
Join BYJU'S Learning Program
similar_icon
Related Videos
thumbnail
lock
The Essentiality of Minerals
BIOLOGY
Watch in App
Join BYJU'S Learning Program
CrossIcon