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Credit: Illustration by Kathryn Born, M.A.
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a.

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The negative pressure exerts a pulling force on the water in the plants xylem and draws the water upward (just like you draw water upward when you suck on a straw).

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  • Cohesion: When water molecules stick to one another through cohesion, they fill the column in the xylem and act as a huge single molecule of water (like water in a straw).

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  • Capillary action: Capillary action is the movement of a liquid across the surface of a solid caused by adhesion between the two. When water molecules stick to other materials, scientists call it adhesion.

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    A familiar example of the stickiness of water occurs when you drink water through a straw a process thats very similar to the method plants use to pull water through their bodies. This gradient is created because of different events occurring within the plant and due to the properties of water, In the leaves, water evaporates from the mesophyll cells resulting in water (and any dissolved solutes) being pulled from the xylem vessels (, The water that is pulled into the mesophyll cells moves across them passively (either via the apoplastic diffusion or symplastic , Xylem vessels have lignified walls to prevent them from collapsing due to the pressure differences being created from the, The mass flow is helped by the polar nature of water and the hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) that form between water molecules which results in, So due to the evaporation of water from the mesophyll cells in the leaves a tension is created in the xylem tissue which is transmitted all the way down the plant because of the cohesiveness of water molecules. It involves three main factors:

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