Monday, 28 March 2016

2.53 explain how water is absorbed by root hair cells

Cells in the roots of plants grow hairs which stick out into the soil taking in water. Each branch of a root will be covered in millions of these cells, this gives the plant a big surface area for absorbing water. There is (usually) a higher concentration of water in the soil than there is inside the plant, so water is drawn into the root hair cell by active transport.

NOTE: It doesn't say anywhere in the spec that we need to be able to draw a root hair cell but it did come up in my mock in January so here's a diagram just incase (:

2 comments:

  1. I'm not sure that is correct. If there is a higher concentration of water in the soil than in the root, surely it will be absorbed into the root via osmosis, not active transport?

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  2. Yeah they absorb water via osmosis and then minerals via active transport

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