Friday 1 February 2019

plant physiology - Do flowers transpire?


I have googled this out but no where found a satisfactory answer. The definition of transpiration states that it is the evaporative loss of water from the aerial surfaces of the plant but I am really unsure as to whether flowers transpire or not.



Answer



Short answer: yes.


Floral parts, as petals and sepals, have stomata, and transpire just like a normal leaf or a primary stem (that is, a stem covered by epidermis, not periderm). And, besides stomatal transpiration, flowers have cuticular transpiration, like most of structures covered by epidermis.


This is a SE micrography of a petal's stoma:


enter image description here


(source: http://www.sciencephoto.com/media/32403/view)


There is a very famous experiment that we make with the kids in primary school: take a white flower and put it in a vase with coloured water. The petals will become coloured. This experiment shows that there is an ascendent flux of water, and this flux depends on transpiration. You can see it here: https://youtu.be/y9hprlmck44


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