what is the importance of surface tension in plants?
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Surface tension refers to hydrogen bonds between water molecules.  Basically, these molecules are held together very tightly by the h-bonds.\n\nWhen one water molecule evaporates from a leaf, it pulls the column of water up via the h-bonds.  The water potential outside the plant is much, much less than that inside the plant, so the water is trying to leave the plant.  This puts stress on the water column in the form of negative pressure within the xylem- you can think of it like sucking on a straw.  With this water potential system, the plant is able to suck water out of the soil and transport it to different parts of its body.  The water potential is also a component of the nutrient transport system.
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http://www.biologyreference.com/Ve-Z/Water-Movement-in-Plants.html\n\nThe Cohesion-Tension Theory\nThe major mechanism for long-distance water transport is described by the cohesion-tension theory, whereby the driving force of transport is transpiration, that is, the evaporation of water from the leaf surfaces. Water molecules cohere (stick together), and are pulled up the plant by the tension, or pulling force, exerted by evaporation at the leaf surface.\n\nWater will always move toward a site with lower water potential, which is a measure of the chemical free energy of water. By definition, pure water has a water potential of 0 MegaPascals (MPa). In contrast, at 20 percent relative humidity, the water potential of the atmosphere is -500 MPa. This difference signifies that water will tend to evaporate into the atmosphere. The water within plants also has a negative potential, indicating water will tend to evaporate into the air from the leaf. The leaves of crop plants often function at -1 MPa, and some desert plants can tolerate leaf water potentials as low as -10 MPa. The water in plants can exist at such low water potentials due to the cohesive forces of water molecules. The chemical structure of water molecules is such that they cohere very strongly. By the cohesion-tension theory, when sunlight strikes a leaf, the resultant evaporation first causes a drop in leaf water potential. This causes water to move from stem to leaf, lowering the water potential in the stem, which in turn causes water to move from root to stem, and soil to root. This serves to pull water up through the xylem tissue of the plant.\nFrom Root to Leaf\nPlants have root hairs and often mycorrhizal fungi at the root surface, both of which serve to filter the soil water as it enters the plant. Mycorrhizae are symbiotic associations between plant roots and fungi. The root cells and mycorrhizal fungi both actively uptake certain mineral nutrients. Mycorrhizae can be particularly important for the uptake of phosphate. The active uptake of minerals by living cells of the root and the subsequent transfer of minerals to the xylem can result in positive root pressures, with water potentials above 0 MPa. This occurs only under certain conditions, such as at night or during rainstorms, when water loss from the leaves is minimal. Such positive root pressures disappear with the onset of leaf transpiration.\n\nWater molecules move from the soil into living cells of the root, and eventually into the transport cells of the xylem, known as tracheids and vessels. These xylem cells are dead and hollow, allowing rapid water transport. They also have hardened cell walls to help them resist the tendency to collapse as water is sucked through them. Both tracheids and vessels \n\n \nA drop of guttation, water extruded by a plant's root pressure, on a blade of grass. have pits on the sides of their walls, which include porous areas for side-to-side transport. Unlike tracheids, a vessel is composed of many cells stacked end to end, with perforations between cells, allowing for more efficient transport.\n\nThe long-distance transport of the water molecule occurs first within the xylem cells of the root, then the xylem of the stem and branch, and then into the xylem of a leaf midrib and vein. Driven by transpiration, the water molecule is pulled from the nonliving tracheids and vessels of the xylem in the living cells of the leaf mesophyll (middle layer) and to the surface of mesophyll cell walls. The water molecule then evaporates into a leaf inter-cellular air space and finally out of a stomatal pore and into the atmosphere. Though photosynthetic action consumes some water, only a small fraction of the water that travels through the plant is used directly for the photo-synthetic reaction, which occurs in leaf mesophyll cells. Instead, most water is lost by transpiration through the stomates.\nThe Role of Stomates\nLeaves of land plants are covered with a waxy cuticle that pr
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Flowers drink water with a capillary action.  Capillary action happens when water molecules are more attracted to the surface they travel along than to each other. In paper towels, the molecules move along tiny fibers. In plants, they move through narrow tubes that are actually called capillaries. Plants couldn't survive without capillaries because they use the water to make their food.  There is an experiement you can try at the link below.
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Water travels through a network of 'veins' through out the plant. The cells are re-hydrated which causes them to expand like a balloon. Once the cells are all filled to capacity, they rest on each other. The cell membranes contain cellulose that helps them stand erect when fully hydrated.
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It has to be D. since alveoli exists in the lungs and surface tension is in fact the result of polar water molecules (or liquid state molecules) attracting more strongly to each other.  Surface tension is the effect that we get when we fill a glass to the top and the surface of the water is curved upside, instead of being flat.
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plants on land have a harder time spreading out their young, look at pollen and seeds.  water plants just release their gametes and they float away
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A liquid is one of the four main phases of matter. It is a fluid whose shape is usually determined by the container it fills. Liquid particles (normally molecules or clusters of molecules) are free to move within the liquid volume, but their mutual attraction limits the ability of particles to leave the volume. The volume of a quanitiy of liquid is fixed by its temperature and pressure. If this volume is not exactly matching the volume of the container, a surface is observed. The surface of the liquid is behaving as an elastic membrane, in which surface tension appears. Due to this effect, liquids form drops and bubbles. Capillarity is another consequence of surface tension.\n\nLiquids exert pressure on the sides of a container as well as on anything within the liquid itself. This pressure is transmitted in all directions and increases with depth.\n\nIf a liquid is at rest in a uniform gravitational field , the pressure &#92; p at any point is given by\n\n    &#92; p=&#92;rho g z\n\nwhere:\n\n    * &#92; &#92;rho = the density of the liquid (assumed constant)\n    * &#92; g = gravity\n    * &#92; z = the depth of the point below the surface.\n\nNote that this formula assumes that the pressure at the free surface is zero, and that surface tension effects may be neglected.\n\nLiquids generally expand when heated, and contract when cooled. Objects immersed in liquids are subject to the phenomenon of buoyancy.\n\nLiquids at their respective boiling point change to gases, and at their freezing points, change to solids. Even below the boiling point liquid evaporates on the surface. A liquid will evaporate until the concentration of the vapors belonging to the liquid reach an equilibrium partial pressure in the gas. Therefore no liquid can exist permanently in a vacuum.\n\nVia fractional distillation, liquid components from a mixture can be separated from one another as they vaporise at their own individual boiling points.\n\nGlass at normal temperatures is not a "supercooled liquid", but a solid. See the article on glass for more details.
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These answers are taken drectly from the listed link.  \n\nIn animal cells, being in a hypertonic environment results in crenation, where the shape of the cell becomes distorted and wrinkled as water leaves the cell. \n\nPlants thrive in hypotonic environments. Their cells have rigid cell walls that prevent bursting. In fact, the pressure of the cytoplasm against the cell wall keeps the plant from wilting and losing its shape.
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cellulose is pretty insoluble in water hence its application as a structural component in plants. Apparently it is soluble in ethylene diamine/salt systems (1). It also dissolves in amine oxide (2)
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Others have answered the question with drinking salt water.  The stomatas are pores in leaves that regulate the absorption & evaporation of water, along with gas exchange.\n\nDepending on the evnironmental condition, stomata will open up if there's lots of moisture in envoronment to absrob extra water.  If environment is dry, stomata will close to conserve its water content by reduing the evaporation.\n\nEffects of salt water on stomata, I'm not very sure but it's sure to give a lot of stress on the plant.  Stomata will open up a lot more in wet condition, and close longer & tightly during dry condition.\n\nSo main thing is, that if you give plants salt water, it's like giving very little water.
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The relative rigidity of the cell wall renders plants sedentary, unlike animals, whose lack of this type of structure allows their cells more flexibility, which is necessary for locomotion. The plant cell wall serves a variety of functions. Along with protecting the intracellular contents, the structure bestows rigidity to the plant, provides a porous medium for the circulation and distribution of water, minerals, and other nutrients, and houses specialized molecules that regulate growth and protect the plant from disease.(plants do not have an immunity system, and cell wall is a good barrier)
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Hard question to answer.  i seem to remember a professor talking on this very subject so i will try and do him justice.\n\n1) surface tension of the phosopholipid bilayer cannot remain bound together once a cell reaches a certain size. another factor is genetic. the genome (depending on the cell type) has a pre determined size. once it is reache a phenominon called apoptosis or cellular suicide is activated bringing a wierd meaning to the welfare of the many outways the welfare of the one. anther aspect is environment.  depending on the cell and the environment it finds itself in, it must compete for for food.  larger cells need more food.  If the food source of the environment is scarce then it wil die as a result of starvation.  in biologic systems immune resppnse may play a significant factor in making the environment too hostile for life.  However lare single cell organisms do exsist.  I will not hand you the answer but I will give you a hint.  Look to Marine life..  good question!
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Yes. It does. Since there is more sugar in the water outside of the plant than there is in the water in the plant, the sugar solution will be hypertonic (higher concentration of solutes). This will cause osmosis to occur, causing water to flow out of the plant and into the sugar water to equilize the content. This will drain the vacuoles in the plant cells, and cause them to shrivel up inside of the cell wall.
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The rigid cell wall in plants prevent bursting or shrivelling because, when water enters the cell, the plasma membrane cannot expand past the cell walls. Similarly, in hypertonic situations, the plasma membrane will just tear away from the cell wall. The cell does not lose its shape because the cell walls are still there and in the same shape.
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the greater the intermolecular forces the stronger the surface tension the more energy it takes to evaporate.\nso the heat of vaporization would be higher as well.
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Liquids like water usually have high surface tension meaning that they tend to minimize their surface area. Now this also means that stretching such a substance  (like you do with a bubble gum) is difficult. \nWhen a substance known as surfactant (used to decrease the surface tension of water) is added, the surface tension decrease and stretching the surface is more easy. It becomes now easy for the liquid to trap a certain volume of air and stretch its flat surface to form a bubble.\n(It does not mean that plain water does'nt form bubbles at all - it does so (as you observe when you pour water from a faucet in a glass) but the bubbles quickle is finished as the high surface tension forces the surface to minimum area - the flat surface.\n\nSo it is clear that whenever you decrease the surface tension of a liquid - by adding a surfactant (detergent in common household) it enhances the bubble formation by little agitation of the liquid.
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Lipids are fats, oils and waxes.\nThe seeds of some plant species store mostly carbohydrates, others store lots of lipids. These stores are both for energy to grow (germinate) and to provide materials to grow before photosynthesis takes over.\n\nEverything a plant needs is made from carbon dioxide plus water (during photosynthesis) and soil minerals. As plants make seeds they move carbohydrates and lipids into them.