Question

5. Based on your observations and what you have learned about osmosis and how/why the water moves across a membrane answer the following questions:
a. I forgot to water my plant and it was all wilted. I watered the soil that the plant was planted in and within an hour it looked all healthy again. Consider that the roots of the plant are made up of cells with a membrane. Explain why the plant went from looking all wilted to looking all healthy (not wilted) after I watered it.

Answer 1

You can think of the plant leaf as being similar to a garden hose. With the water turned off, the hose is limp–its wilted. When we turn the water on, the water pressure inside the hose increases and the hose becomes stiff. The stiff hose no longer looks wilted. Plants work exactly the same way. In order for a plant to maintain its normal shape it needs a certain amount of water pressure inside the leaves.
Water pressure is maintained in the leaves by the roots which are absorbing water from the soil and pumping it up into the leaves. Leaves naturally loose water, especially during photosynthesis. Water is constantly flowing from the roots to the leaves.
If roots can’t get enough wate