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Organic
Originally this was something which served as an organ and with time was adopted by chemists to refer to carbon based compounds. As a result of living things being carbon based it extended to which living things and material which resulted from living things; hence organic matter. The latter half of the 20th century saw…
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Nomenclature
This is simply the process of giving things names.
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Species
The species is the basic unit that we divide living things into and originally species were seen as clearly distinct from one another. What puzzled scientist was how species appeared in the first place? The answer was species evolved from other species as a result of a battle for survival; as carefully argued in Charles…
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Genus
This is a collection of very similar species and forms the first part of a plant’s scientific name. For example Alchemilla in Alchemilla Mollis and as such it is very important in the naming of plants. Ideally it would be best to have a clear definition as to what constitutes a genus and the International…
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Phosphorus (P)
This is the second most important plant nutrient after nitrogen and important in its take up. Phosphorus is an important element in many of the complex compounds in plants which they need. For example it is one of only five different elements in DNA, the others being oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and carbon. Even with an…
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Potassium (K)
This has a range of vital roles in plants, thought the exact nature and extent of them is still not well understood. It is generally more likely to be in short supply in soils with little clay in them such as peat and sandy soils.
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Potash
A common name for potassium.
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Nitrogen (N)
One of the main plant nutrients and used by plants to make all proteins, and therefore as well enzymes, chlorophyll and many other essential parts of plants. The amount of nitrogen available to a plant is often the factor which limits it rate of growth and its behaviour within the soil is a very complex…
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Nutrients
These are chemicals plants use to grow and are often divided into macronutrients and trace elements. These terms are in themselves are of limited use as if the plant needs the chemical to grow, in however small a quality, its absence is going to cause problems. In practice the main ones are nitrogen (N), phosphorus…
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Trace elements
This is rather a catch all term for a very large group of chemical elements which plants need, but in very small amounts. It is very rare that adequate amounts of them are not naturally present in the soil.
