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The fluid dynamics of vascular transport in plants Tomas Bohr Department of Physics Technical University of Denmark Plants are among the most successful organisms on earth both in terms of total biomass and individual size range. Contrary to animals, they lack the central organs which we associate with life, such as heart or brain. This requires an efficient and robust vascular system, which sustains growth and communication throughout the entire organism, from root to leaf of even the tallest tree, and which can function without a central heart to drive the sap. In the lecture I shall discuss the main parts of the vascular system: the xylem transporting almost pure water, the phloem transporting sugar solutions, with particular focus on the osmotically driven sugar transport. The leaves are particularly interesting since they contain the outlets for the xylem and the inlets for the phloem and thus control the entire flow. In the seminar I shall show that it is possible to understand important structural features, such as leaf sizes, on the basis of simple fluid dynamical considerations, but that several important questions remain unanswered. osmosis evaporation photosynthesis mesophyll phloem loading sugar unloading phloem xylem