Absorption of Water

Because terrestrial plants cannot draw water directly from a surrounding aquatic medium the way their ancestors once did, they must actively absorb it from the soil to maintain turgidity, keep their metabolism running, and support growth. This absorption happens in two clearly separate stages: water first moves from the soil into the plant's root hairs, either actively or passively, and only then does it move laterally, cell by cell, from those root hairs across the root's tissue layers to reach the …