Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2021 June 22

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June 22

Osmosis

Do plants, only absorb water through osmosis via their roots or do they absorb water from all parts of the plant? Or is this species specific? Thank you

Our article at Absorption of water states simply that "In higher plants water is absorbed through root hairs..." and this source also says "Essentially all of the water used by land plants is absorbed from the soil by roots." Both of those suggest that the simple answer may be "roots only" but that there are edge cases. For example, algae is not a "higher plant" and has no roots with which to absorb water, though you may or may not consider it a "plant" in the everyday sense of the term. Other sites also use modifiers like "usually" and "generally" and "most" while going on to explain how the root system works to absorb moisture. I haven't seen percentages, but the general sense seems to be that the amount absorbed by leaves and stems and so on is incidental and/or negligible. Matt Deres (talk) 13:49, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

https://www.saps.org.uk/secondary/news-and-research/1267-how-plants-can-suck-water-from-the-sky often plants in cloud forests do break the roots-only rule. Abductive (reasoning) 14:56, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

Tillandsia (aka: air plants), absorb water through leaves. The few roots they have are primarily for anchoring. 2603:6081:1C00:1187:D850:7CD2:B521:2587 (talk) 16:16, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

Do budgerigars lack self-control, or is my bird just dumb?

(this happened a few days ago and he's fine now - I'm not asking for veterinary advice)

So the other day, I gave my budgie a three inch square block of honey and sugar-coated birdseed. Hung it in his cage and figured he'd take a few days to get through it and he'd just eat bits and pieces of it whenever he wanted.

Went away to do something else for a few hours and I came back to see that he'd eaten like 2/3s of it in that time and his throat/crop area looked like he'd swallowed a golf ball. He was sitting there fluffed up and looking really sorry for himself.

Shortly after that, he threw most of it back up again and had bad guts for the rest of the night too.

Okay, I guess I learned that this little guy lacks the concept that eating to excess can have a bad outcome. Or he did before this. Won't be repeating that again. If I give him the same sort of honey seed, I'll just give him a small piece next time.

Just wondering if all budgies are like this, or if mine is just not particularly bright? This is the same bird that fell headfirst into a nearly-empty jar of jam, got trapped and absolutely covered with sticky too, so it may be the latter. --146.200.128.223 (talk) 12:55, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

My budgerigar was not like this. It seems to me, that your budgerigar is a femel one and maybe want do give some eggs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.200.60.148 (talk) 13:43, 22 June 2021 (UTC)

Budgerigars, like many larger parrots, are social creatures who are quite intelligent for their size. If your 'budgie' is kept alone in a cage unable to interact with other budgies, and left without the alternative interest of human companionship for hours at a time, he likely gets bored and, like some people, may over-eat simply for something to do. He may also lack material on which to chew and keep his beak from overgrowing (a cuttlefish 'bone' is traditional), so chewed (and ate) the food block for this reason.

Another symptom of boredom sometimes seen in larger parrot species is pulling out feathers: I knew one parrot (belonging to my great-grandparents when I was a small child) who became completely bald from doing this.

I suggest you try to give the bird more company – avian or human – or at least an environment with a more interesting layout and some interactive toys. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 2.122.59.177 (talk) 02:05, 23 June 2021 (UTC)