Osmosis in Plant Cells

Quite a long time ago, we did an experiment on osmosis in plant cells. I forgot to update my BIN!

First, we prepared a slide of a wet hydrilla leaf and observed it under a microscope.

Hydrilla leaf at 40x magnification

After that, we placed the leaf in a saline solution and waited for 15 minutes. We then put it on a slide and observed it under a microscope.

Hydrilla leaf at 40x magnification

I could tell that when the hydrilla leaf was submerged in a saline solution, its cytoplasm appeared to have shrunk away from the cell wall slightly. I learnt that this is because the water potential of the saline solution was lower compared to the cytoplasm of the cells. Thus osmosis occured and there was a nett movement of molecules from the cytoplasm across the partially permeable cell membrane into the saline solution, causing the cell to decrease in water content and volume, therefore the cytoplasm shrunk in volume, away from the rigid cell wall.