Chapter Summary

1. Molecules and ions are in constant random motion and tend to distribute themselves evenly in the space available to them. They move from a region of higher concentration to a region of lower concentration by simple diffusion along a diffusion gradient; they may also move against a diffusion gradient. Evenly distributed molecules are in a state of equilibrium. Diffusion rates are affected by temperature, molecule size and density, and other factors.

2. Osmosis is the diffusion of water through a differentially permeable membrane. It takes place in response to concentration differences of dissolved substances.

3. Osmotic pressure or potential is the pressure required to prevent osmosis from taking place. The pressure that develops in a cell as a result of water entering it is called turgor. Water moves from a region of higher water potential (osmotic potential and pressure potential combined) to a region of lower water potential when osmosis is occurring. Osmosis is the primary means by which plants obtain water from their environment.

4. Plasmolysis is the shrinkage of the cytoplasm away from the cell wall as a result of osmosis taking place when the water potential inside the cell is greater than outside.

5. Imbibition is the attraction and adhesion of water molecules to the internal surfaces of materials; it results in swelling and is the initial step in the germination of seeds.

6. Active transport is the expenditure of energy by a cell that results in molecules or ions entering or leaving the cell against a diffusion gradient.

7. Water that enters a plant passes through it and mostly transpires into the atmosphere via stomata. Water retained by the plant is used in photosynthesis and other metabolic activities.

8. The cohesion-tension theory postulates that water rises through plants because of the adhesion of water molecules to the walls of the capillary-conducting elements of the xylem, cohesion of the water molecules, and tension on the water columns created by the pull developed by transpiration.

9. The translocation of food substances takes place in a water solution, and according to the pressure-flow hypothesis, such substances flow along concentration gradients between their sources and sinks.

10. Transpiration is regulated by humidity and the stomata, which open and close through changes in turgor pressure of the guard cells. These changes, which involve potassium ions, result from osmosis and active transport between the guard cells and the adjacent epidermal cells.

11. Aquatic, desert, tropical, and some cold-zone plants have modifications of stomatal apparatuses or specialized forms of photosynthesis that adapt them to their particular environments.

12. Guttation is the loss of water at night in liquid form through hydathodes at the tips of leaf veins.

13. Growth phenomena are controlled by both internal and external means and by chemical and physical forces in balance with one another. Besides carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, 15 other elements are essential to most plants. When any of the essential elements are deficient in the plant, characteristic deficiency symptoms appear.