You water three sunflower plants with salt water. Each plant receives a different concentration of salt solutions. A fourth plant receives pure...

To answer this question we need to discuss the effects of osmosis. Osmosis is the diffusion of water. This means that water is going to move from a high concentration to a low concentration so that there is an equal amount everywhere. Water is able to get through the cell membrane in plants and animals easily. When there is too much water the cells will swell up and this is called hypotonic. If there is not enough water in the cell it will begin to shrivel up and this is called hypertonic. The plant that is given pure freshwater will grow as normal. It should be getting all of the appropriate nutrients because the water would be in balance (assuming it is being watered appropriately). The plants given salt water will begin to shrivel up depending on how much salt is in the water. Salt will pull the water out of the cells causing them to shrivel. If all of the cells in the plant are shriveling up the plant will then shrink and wilt. The cells are trying to get the water that they need and are trying to take it away from the salt. The plant then expends so much of its energy getting water that it does not have enough energy to help the plant grow. So, the higher the salt concentration the more damaging it will be to the growth of the plant.