Abstract
IN the five or six-kingdom biological classification system, the Plant Kingdom often receives minimal coverage in both biology textbooks and biology teaching (Uno 1994). In particular, plants are infrequently used as examples of general biological concepts (Moehlmann 1993). For example, terrestrial food chains have an autotrophic plant at the bottom of the food chain, yet plants are not included at higher trophic levels. To incorporate more plants in a freshman, nonmajors biology course, I introduce the fascinating group of heterotrophic angiosperms in the study of food chains. Biology textbooks often state that all plants are autotrophic; however, plants exhibit substantial diversity in their nutritional mode. More than 3400 angiosperm species in about 27 families are at least partly heterotrophic, meaning they obtain at least some of their energy from other organisms (Leake 1994; Press & Graves 1995). Traditionally, heterotrophic plants have been divided into parasitic plants and saprophytes. The term, myco-heterotrophic plant, has been proposed as a more accurate replacement for saprophyte (Leake 1994). This article uses the shorter term, myco-heterophyte.
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