if the only water the leave was just a sparyed mist, would it survive, why, or why not?

Answer 1

Yes, they can. Hate to disagree with everyone above but it's done all the time when taking cuttings to make new plants from old ones. When you start a cutting by putting the cut end in the growing medium they can't get water through roots because there aren't any--so the leaves are misted and the cutting can get water into the cells that way. It's not as efficient as roots but if you don't have roots you get it how you can. We used to set our mist timers at 1 second mist every 6 minutes.

Once the new cutting grows roots then you have to gradually stop misting the leaves and start putting water in the media so the roots can "learn" to take in water. Once that happens you have a new plant that can be sent to a nursery or planted wherever you want.

Answer 2

No. The leaves are equipped to let water out, not take it in.
It is the roots (and stem to a degree) of a plant that are adapted for the uptake of water. The water is required for mineral uptake, and the leaves are not adapted to extract these minerals. Water uptake is driven by either the capillary effect (the same thing you see when you dip a piece of kitchen towel in water, and the water climbs up the paper...) or transpiration, where water going out of the leaves sucks more in at the bottom of the plant.
If a plant's only source of water was a mist on the leaf, then it would die.

Answer 3

There are some leafy plants that get all their water through their leaves and use their roots only as holdfasts. Most of them are in the family Bromeliaceae, sometimes called the pineapple family. However, pineapples are not examples. All the examples are epiphytes or saxicoles, living on top of other plants (no, they are not parasitic), rocks, telephone wires, and the like. Spanish moss is probably one of the best-known examples. Other epiphytes, such as orchids, can live on mists but absorb the moisture through the roots.

Answer 4

Plants absorb water through their roots, not their leaves. If the water being sprayed onto the leaves was abundant enough for drops to coalesce and drip onto the ground where the water could be used by the roots then they might survive depending on how much water they need.

Answer 5

I wouldn't think so, plants have a root system that draws water that quenches all parts of the plant not just the leaf, I also think that if just spray mist the sun would burn the leaf and deplete the chlorophyll turning the leaf brown and dying.

Answer 6

I think what you're asking is " if the plant only received sprayed water on a leaf, would it survive"...I think that is what you mean...I don't think it would, because the plant needs water around it's roots to suck up and feed its leafs, etc.