Follow the Drop – Plants

Your choice to become water for a plant means that you will be absorbed from the soil through the plant’s roots. Because water absorbed by plant roots contains dissolved minerals, chemicals and microorganisms, you will be ensuring your plant receives what it needs to grow from the soil.

Water that lands on plants as snow or rain can evaporate directly off the leaves into the atmosphere without landing on the ground. Evaporation off of plant leaves and the ground is important for keeping water in the atmosphere and for preventing flooding in some areas.

Evaporation from water bodies such as oceans, lakes, rivers and seas is also crucial as this process provides approximately 90% of atmospheric moisture. The remaining 10% of atmospheric moisture is due primarily to transpiration, which happens when water escapes through plant leaves as a gas. The combination of evaporation and transpiration is called evapotranspiration¹.

By choosing to become water for a plant, you’ve helped to enormously improve water quality.  Plants can improve water quality by:

• Holding soil and sediment in place with their roots.
• Slowing water flow and blocking sediment and contaminants from running into a waterbody over the surface or underground.
• Taking up substances from the soil (e.g. nutrients, bacteria, metals, minerals, toxic contaminants) to prevent them from reaching water bodies.