transpiration I

"although traspiration appears to be a wasteful process, plants cannot avoid losing water vapor through stomata that are opened to admit carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, a dilemma nature has turned to advantage. transpiration not only lifts vast quantities of water, against gravity, to the topmost leaves, it is also an effective means of transporting minerals form the soil to all parts of the plant...furthermore transpiration has a significant cooling effect on leaves exposed to full sunlight because water vapor escaping form a warmed, moist object carries heat with it. " from "botany for gardeners" by brian capon.________________________ the weather here has been hot and dry and the curled leaves on the sweet corn are a sure sign of transpiration and as capon says that's a good thing...as long as more water arrives eventually...and it did since i soaked every bed...the hopi blue in the third photo seems to be suffering less, but the back of the garden is shaded by a large tree in the southwest corner and so the western beds get some afternoon relief...the sweet corn is flowering and the thickening in the stalks speaks of nascent ears of corn...the next few weeks will tell the sweet corn story for this season...stay tuned...there is at least another half of the season to have a look at and as crops come out new ones will be cycled in along with an experiment in naturally delivered fertility using a biological symbiosis between plants and bacteria...we still have many places to explore in microcosm.