Myxotrophism or myxotrophy, in biology, is the name given to the quality of the living being with autotrophic and heterotrophic characteristics. That is, it is capable of producing its own food from carbon dioxide fixation (through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis), but it can also feed on other inorganic or organic compounds. Mixotrophic can be either eukaryotic or prokaryotic.
Carnivorous plants are commonly cited as myxotrophic organisms in the wrong way because all their food comes from photosynthesis. These plants only depend in part on the nitrogen contained in animal proteins that they digest. This dependence occurs because the carnivorous plant is native to areas with poor, soggy soil, scarce of nitrates, essential for the synthesis of the chlorophyll molecule.
