the.com/transpiration
A tree sweating skyward, pulling water from roots to leaves just to breathe out loud.
means The process by which plants release water vapor into the air, mainly through tiny pores in their leaves called stomata.
from Built from Latin trans- ('across, through') plus spirare ('to breathe'), the same root that gives us 'spirit' and 'respiration.' It entered scientific use around the 17th-18th century as botanists realized plants weren't just drinking water silently — they were actively exhaling it, leaf by leaf, in a slow green sigh.
- daily output
- one large tree releases hundreds of gallons as vapor
- the engine
- evaporation from leaf pores drags water up against gravity
- forest weather
- rainforests literally manufacture their own rain this way
- no pump needed
- cohesion of water molecules does all the lifting