Question

Annette observed that if she put salad dressing on her salad in the morning before leaving home, by lunch time she found excess liquid in her container and the greens were wilted. Why does this happen?

Answer 1

The salad dressing could have been acidic and broke down the cell outer layers resulting in the loss of water and deterioration of cells. Just what I think, there's probably more options.

Answer 2

The correct answer would be - the hypertonic condition will cause the diffusion of the water outside the cell.

Explanation:

Annette found out that salad dressing cause releasing the excess liquid in the container after putting salad dressing in the salad. The salad dressing probably creating the hypertonic solution around the plant cells (salad greens).

The hypertonic solution around the plant cells causes diffusion of the water to diffuse from the cell to the outer cell. The diffusion will create a decrease in the turgor pressure inside the cell which causes greens to wilt.

Thus, the correct answer is - the hypertonic condition will cause the diffusion of the water outside the cell.