"Franz Heymann"
wrote in message
...

"Alan Gould" wrote
in message
...
In article
, Franz Heymann
notfranz.
writes
Plants do not have stomachs and cannot
digest organic matter. It
is also a moot point whether organic
molecules, which tend to be rather
large objects, can penetrate through the
surface of the leaves into the
interior of the plant.

Plants do not have stomachs, but they process
dissolved nutrients into a
growing medium, both through their leaves and
through their roots. They
also process light into plant food by
photosynthesis.

I believe that I am correct in saying that
plants make use of only inorganic
compounds as nutrients.
If anybody has actual evidence to prove me
wrong, I will of course
apologise.

I'd like to tell you about a little experiment I
conducted last year. I'd noticed that Teasel
plants in my garden were collecting water in the
base of the leaves and flies and other insects
were becoming trapped in the water. I wondered if
they were getting any nutriment from this.

So, I made holes in all of the leaves in some
plants to drain the water, these plants became
quite sickly compared with those I left alone.
Now the bit I'm not sure about, but here goes,
shoot me down, tell me the correct answer,
whatever. Anyway, I'm pretty sure drowned, rotting
insects produce mostly organic compounds, so I
assume that the Teasels are using those; and maybe
they are a special case, on their way to becoming
a "carniverous" plant, but to me it looks as
though Teasels do use organic compounds as
nutrients.

This year I'm mainly trying to get rid of the
b****y things.