A plant nutrient is a chemical element that is essential for plant growth and reproduction. Essential element is a term often used to identify a plant nutrient. The term nutrient implies essentiality, so it is redundant to call these elements essential nutrients. Commonly, for an element to be a nutrient, it must fit certain criteria. The principal criterion is that the element must be required for a plant to complete its life cycle. The second criterion is that no other element substitutes fully for the element being considered as a nutrient. The third criterion is that all plants require the element. All the elements that have.
