As far as I know, plants don’t have any kind of moving parts that help move water and nutrients from their roots to their crowns. So how do they do it? How do plants work against gravity?
It would make more sense to me if plants worked like fungi, spreading throughout the earth until they’re ready to reproduce, but no, upright plants are the whole organism. Is that not, like, super weird?
Plants are so weird. Like, “Hi, I’m a plant. I eat sunlight and communicate using mycorrhizal fungi. I have no muscles, but still break through concrete slabs. I have no heart, but still move water from my roots to my leaves.”
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Flow of water goes from roots to leaves through a difference in pressure between those zones of the plant. Higher water pressure at the bottom, lower pressure at the leaves where the water is evaporating into the air. This helps drive water movement up the plant and out. This process requires rigid tube structures if the plant wants to get tall, which is why tall plants are often woody and the internal xylem/phloem (basically the veins of the plant) are so fibrous.
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