2.

1 Plants and water

Describe the pathway of water
and mineral salts from the roots
to the leaves in flowering plants,
including absorption in root hair
cells, transport through the
xylem, and transpiration from
the surface of leaves.
How root hairs absorb water
• Plants need to absorb water almost all of the time. They do this through their
roots. The roots absorb water from the soil.
• You may remember that special cells called root hairs grow out of the surface of
roots. Root hair cells provide a really big surface through which water and mineral
ions can be absorbed into the plant.

Each root hair is part of a single cell.

 Water moves into the root hair cell from the soil. It passes through the cell wall
and the cell membrane of the cell, and into the cytoplasm.

Minerals, including magnesium and

nitrate, also move into the root hair
cell, along with the water.
Magnesium and nitrate are in the
form of ions dissolved in the water
between the soil particles.
How water moves up the plant
2.2 Transpiration
Find out how water vapor is
lost from plant leaves.
When the water arrives at a leaf, it
moves out of the xylem vessels and into
the leaf cells.
 The cells that have chloroplasts use
some of the water for photosynthesis.
But they do not need very much water
for that, and most of the water does not
stay in the cell. The liquid water in the
cell soaks into the cellulose cell wall,
and then changes to water vapor - it
evaporates.
The water vapor diffuses into the air
spaces between the cells. These air
spaces connect with the air outside the
leaf through tiny holes in the underside
of the leaf - the stomata. The water
vapor can diffuse through these holes
and into the air.
The loss of water vapor from leaves is
called transpiration.