Question

How do non-green plants get their food?

Answer 1

Hint: Plants are known to be multicellular organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. Most of them are green plants that possess chlorophyll and obtain energy by photosynthesis while few of them do not contain chlorophyll and are known as non-green plants.

Complete answer:
Non-green plants are those which do not possess chlorophyll as a result of which they cannot carry out photosynthesis, obtain their energy from sunlight and also cannot carry out fixation of sugars. These plants obtain food by different mechanisms and are broadly classified into parasitic and mycotrophic plants.

Parasitic plants are those that obtain their source of food completely from other living plants. They possess modified roots known as haustoria that can penetrate the host plant and reach their vascular bundles, xylem or phloem and in some cases both which helps them to obtain food and water for themselves from the host plant.

The parasitic plants are known to detect their hosts either through chemicals given out in the soil or air by the host plant or chemicals given off by the shoots and roots of the host plant. Mycotrophic plants are those that obtain their source of food and water through association with fungi which can be either mutualistic or parasitic.

Note: Though parasitic plants are known to be harmful to host plants they have certain economical uses such as- sandalwood trees, a type of parasitic plant provides fragrant oils, few of them provide attractive flowers and they are important in research.