Abstract
DR. LEVITT1 directly compares a resistance for flow of liquid water with one for gaseous diffusion of water vapour. A comparison of the resistances in the plant tissues with those in the gaseous phase is, however, only possible even as an approximation if both are expressed in terms of the same fluid. If this comparison is made in terms of water vapour we can specify, for each part of the system that is considered separately, an equivalent air path ; this is a tube of air of unit cross-sectional area of such a length that, with the equivalent potential difference (ΔP) maintained between its two ends, it would allow the same net flow of water as that observed to pass through the system in the steady state.
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References
Levitt, J., Nature, 212, 527 (1966).
Honert, T. H. van den, Disc. Farad. Soc., 3, 146 (1948).
Brouwer, R., Symp. Soc. Exp. Biol., 19, 131 (1965).
Mees, G. C., and Weatherley, P. E., Proc. Roy. Soc., B, 147, 367 and 381 (1957).
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HEATH, O. Resistance to Water Transport in Plants. Nature 213, 741 (1967). https://doi.org/10.1038/213741a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/213741a0
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