What happens when you do this?

Question

Make up a salt solution by putting several teaspoons of table salt into a cup of water. Stir the solution until no more salt will dissolve. Pour the solution into a bowl.

In a second bowl, put plain water, with no salt added.

Take two fresh leaves off a house or garden plant, or use a leaf of cabbage, spinach, or lettuce. Don't use an evergreen leaf, use a soft one.

Immediately immerse one leaf in each bowl of water. Leave them there for at least 20 minutes.

Remove the two leaves and describe the results. What do you think happened here?

Answer 1

it's osmosis. the cells in the leaf are permeable to water but not salt,so if you immerse the leaf in salt water the cell will absorb water trying to balance the osmotic pressure .if you put the leaf in fresh water the cells will dump water,the salt water will cause the cells to absorb too much water and they will burst,the fresh water leaf will dehydrate and wrinkle,i think i got it right but don't quote me........tom

Answer 2

The leaf in the salt water would be dehydrated, as its internal osmotic pressure would make water from the leaf seep through the cellular membranes.

Answer 3

Your talking about tonicity, the salt solution is hypertonic and would pull fluid from the plasmodesmata in the plant cells...the plain water being relatively isotonic would have little loss of fluid depending on where you live in the country and if you used tap water or bottled.  Its the same concept of cellular dehydration and water toxicity in human cells.