Plants that produce their own food are called

Organisms are classified by their mode of nutrition. In autotrophic nutrition, an organism synthesises its own organic food from simple inorganic raw materials (carbon dioxide and water) using an external energy source such as sunlight; in heterotrophic nutrition, an organism cannot make its own food and instead depends on other organisms, living or dead, for ready-made organic nutrients.

Green plants (and a few bacteria) contain chlorophyll, which traps sunlight energy and drives photosynthesis — converting carbon dioxide and water into glucose inside the plant's own cells. Because the plant manufactures its food internally rather than obtaining it from another organism, it is classified as an autotroph.

• Heterotrophs obtain their nutrients by consuming other organisms, or organic matter those organisms have already made, rather than manufacturing food from inorganic raw material.

• Saprophytes — mainly fungi and some bacteria — break down and absorb nutrients from dead and decaying organic matter in their surroundings.

• Parasites live in or on a host organism and draw nutrients directly from that host, often at the host's expense.

Therefore, plants that produce their own food are correctly classified as Autotrophs.