How does water move through a plant and which structures it exits the leaf?

Question

How does water move through a plant and which structures it exits the leaf?

Answer 1

Water enters the plant at the root (tracheophytes and higher), ascends in the xylem (vascular tissue) through the stem to the leaf and escapes the leaf through the stoma.

xy·lem - a compound tissue in vascular plants that helps provide support and that conducts water and nutrients upward from the roots, consisting of tracheids, vessels, parenchyma cells, and woody fibers. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/x...

In botany, a "stoma" (also stomate; plural stomata) is a tiny opening or pore, found mostly on the underside of a plant leaf Also, water vapor is released into the atmosphere through these pores in a process called transpiration. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoma

Answer 2

Hi Dov,

The parts of a plant that are involved with moving water to the highest parts of a tree are: the roots (which absorb water, along with nutrients, from the soil); the xylem or sapwood (which is the layer in the trunk and stems of a tree that move the water up the column of the tree and out to the leaves); the veins of the leaves (which transport water to the cells of the leaves); and the leaves' stomata [singular = stoma] (which release water vapor to create the necessary water pressure variance that allows for the water to rise up in the tree's trunk and stems. This is called the transpiration stream.

I hope this helps.

Hiking Tony