Carrots and flowers and trees may seem to be simple organisms when compared to elephants and humans and they are. But they're still not that simple.
As an example, take just water movement through a generic plant--not reproduction or photosynthesis or other functions. Here are the basic parts of a plant:
To see how different environmental conditions affect water transport in plants (aka transpiration) be sure to visit this interactive animation at the Science site. Note that plants normally absorb most of their water via their roots; an exception is plants in a cloud forest.
Cloud Forests are a type of rainforest that occurs near the equator and at altitudes between 2,000 and 3,500 meters. Wikipedia says they occur between 500 and 4,000 meters.
"Cloud Forest Trees Drink Water Using Leaves," states this article at Nature World News. In the article one of the researchers is quoted:
This lovely image was found at Melissa Chernick's blog in a post titled "Drinking the Clouds."
--Marge
As an example, take just water movement through a generic plant--not reproduction or photosynthesis or other functions. Here are the basic parts of a plant:
***
 |
| Typical Plant Body, Illinois University at Chicago (UIC) |
***
To see how different environmental conditions affect water transport in plants (aka transpiration) be sure to visit this interactive animation at the Science site. Note that plants normally absorb most of their water via their roots; an exception is plants in a cloud forest.
Cloud Forests are a type of rainforest that occurs near the equator and at altitudes between 2,000 and 3,500 meters. Wikipedia says they occur between 500 and 4,000 meters.
***
 |
| Costa Rica, Santa Elena Skywalk, Dirk van der Made, Wikipedia |
***
"Cloud Forest Trees Drink Water Using Leaves," states this article at Nature World News. In the article one of the researchers is quoted:
"The textbooks teach us that water enters roots, moves up the trunk and into the branches, then finally exits the leaves. That's true, but it's not the whole story," Greg Goldsmith, lead author of the study from UC Berkeley, said in a statement.
"With our sensors, we observed water entering the leaves and actually moving back down the branches toward the trunk."
This lovely image was found at Melissa Chernick's blog in a post titled "Drinking the Clouds."
***
 |
| Drinking The Clouds, Storiented |
***
--Marge
No comments:
Post a Comment