Transporting Water in Plants

By Martin Canny

Evaporation from the leaves pulls water to the top of a tree, but living cells make that possible by protecting the stretched water and repairing it when it breaks

Biology Botany

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March-April 1998

Volume 86, Number 2
Page 152

DOI: 10.1511/1998.21.152

Plants are thirsty creatures. Reflect on how much more water you feed to a tomato plant than to a cat. For every kilogram of organic material made by a plant, 500 kilograms of water are absorbed by the roots and evaporated, or transpired, from the leaves. Consequently, management of that stream of water dominates the life process of plants. The question is: How is that management achieved?

Vanessa Vick (Photo Researchers, Inc.)

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