In plants, no heart, no blood and no circulation is needed, but plants do need a transport

system to move food, water and minerals around. They use two different systems
– xylem moves water and solutes from the roots to the leaves – phloem moves food substances
from leaves to the rest of the plant. Both of these systems are rows of cells that make continuous
tubes running the full length of the plant. Xylem cells have extra reinforcement in their cell
walls, and this helps to support the weight of the plant. For this reason, the transport systems are
arranged differently in root and stem – in the root it has to resist forces that could pull the plant
out of the ground. In the stem it has to resist compression and bending forces caused by the
weight of the plant and the wind.
Transport in plants involves the transport of minerals and water from root to stem to
leaves. Plants have two way of transport; passive and active transport. Passive transport is a kind
of transport by which ions or molecules move along a concentration gradient, which means
movement from an area of higher concentration to an area of lower concentration. Since the
movement of substances is by passive transport, this process does not require chemical energy.
In moving substances across a biological membrane, a passive transport may or may not need
the assistance of a membrane protein. There are four major types of passive transport; simple
diffusion, facilitated diffusion, filtration and osmosis. However, active transport is a kind
of transport wherein ions or molecules move against a concentration gradient, which
means movement in the direction opposite that of diffusion – or – movement from an area of
lower concentration to an area of higher concentration. Hence, this process will require
expenditure of energy, and the assistance of a type of protein called a carrier protein.
In plants, the transpiration stream is the uninterrupted stream of water and solutes which
is taken up by the roots and transported via the xylem to the leaves where it evaporates into the
air. Essentially, the water passes from the soil to the root by osmosis. The long and thin shape
of root hairs maximizes surface area so that more water can enter. There is greater water
potential in the soil than in the cytoplasm of the root hair cells. As the cells surface membrane of
the root hair cell is semi-permeable, osmosis can take place; and water passes from the soil to the
root hairs. The next stage in the transpiration stream is water passing into the xylem vessels. The
water either goes through the cortex cells (between the root cells and the xylem vessels) or it
bypasses them – going through their cell walls. After this, the water moves up the xylem vessels
to the leaves through diffusion: A pressure change between the top and bottom of the vessel.
Diffusion takes place because there is a water potential gradient between water in the xylem
vessel and the leaf (as water is transpiring out of the leaf). This means that water diffuses up the
leaf. There is also a pressure change between the top and bottom of the xylem vessels, due to
water loss from the leaves. This reduces the pressure of water at the top of the vessels. This
means water moves up the vessels. The last stage in the transpiration stream is the water moving
into the leaves, and then the actual transpiration that is the loss of water from a plant by
evaporation. First, the water moves into the mesophyll cells from the top of the xylem vessels.
Then the water evaporates out of the cells into the spaces between the cells in the leaf. After this,
the water leaves the leaf (and the whole plant) by diffusion through stomata.

Factors that speed up transpiration will also increase the rate of water uptake from the
soil. These factors include light, temperature, wind and humidity. Theorectically speaking,
transpiration increases in bright light because the stomata opens wider to allow more carbon
dioxide into the leaf for photosynthesis therefore more water has the ability of evaporating and
transpiration also occurs faster in higher temperatures because evaporation and diffusion are
faster at higher temperatures. Additionally, transpiration occurs slower in humid conditions
because diffusion of water vapour out of the leaf slows down if the leaf is already surrounded by
moist air. Lastly, wind increases the rate of transpiration because the water vapour is removed
quickly by air movement, speeding up diffusion of more water vapour out of the leaf.
In this experiment, three plants of similar number of leaves, height and structure were
used. This was done to obtain a more accurate result. The oil was placed on the top of water in
the conical flask to minimize evaporation from the flasks. The flask were weighed before placed
in the various conditions and the weight was recorded in a table. After the hour had pass (the
amount of time given for the plants to transpire), the plants were then reweighed.
Table 1 showed the results of each plant sample A, B and C. The results showed that each plant
had water loss from transpiration. However sample A had the most water loss this could have
been because sample A had more leaves than sample B and sample C. Therefore, from the results
of this experiment it can be seen that transpiration occurs at a faster rate in windy conditions. As
mentioned before, wind increases the rate of transpiration and this was proven valid in the
experiment conducted.
The experiment conducted could have been improved by using plants with the same
number of leaves so that all the plant samples would transpire at the same rate making the results
more accurate and precise.