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The influence of distilled water on the fluidity of protoplasm

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Summary

It is found that if distilled water is allowed to flow through the leaves of terrestrial plants (Achillea millefolium, Chenopodium album, Rumex acetosella, Ficaria verna), the protoplasm of the cells exhibits increased fluidity. The terrestrial plants thus react in the same way as the earlier investigatedHelodea. The cause is not the absence of nutrient salts or of microelements, since nutrient solutions prepared from distilled water have the same effect. The cause is instead the absence of the fluidity-active substances that have earlier been demonstrated in the soil fluid, and which derive from plants.

The effect persists as long as the leaves take up distilled water, but disappears gradually (after 1–3 days) when the uptake has ceased. It is assumed that the return to the normal fluidity value is due to production of fluidity-decreasing substances by the leaf cells. The changes—the increase in fluidity and the subsequent decrease—suggest the existence of a system of equilibrium, which regulates the fluidity value.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Physiology, University of Stockholm, Sweden

    M. G. Stålfelt

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  1. M. G. Stålfelt
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The expenses of the present investigation were defrayed by a grant from the Science Research Council of Sweden.

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Stålfelt, M.G. The influence of distilled water on the fluidity of protoplasm. Protoplasma 48, 134–142 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01252891

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01252891

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