Chapter 18, Problem 17STP

Summary Introduction

To describe:

Beans should be planted in the field when other crops are not growing.

Introduction:

Plants are autotrophs and similar to other living things they also need variety of nutrients for their survival. They can synthesize their own food, but they obtain many nutrients from the soil and the atmosphere.

Explanation of Solution

The beans are leguminous plants, which have the properties of nitrogen fixation. The root of these plants has association with rhizobium bacteria. These bacteria fix the atmospheric nitrogen into the soil, which makes soil nitrogen rich and provides a better growth atmosphere for the other plants. Hence, these plants help in replenishing the nutrients.