Imbibition

Imbibition is the phenomenon of soaking up water by both living and dead tissues of plants. Fibres, pieces of wood and some proteins are capable of retaining some water molecules; the cells are also able to absorb water by osmosis. Movement of water inside the cell is endosmosis and movement of water out of the cell is exosmosis. Imbibitions pertain to endosmosis.

Plasmolysis

In an extreme situation when the liquid medium outside the ell is more concentrated than the protoplasm, the water of the protoplasm would get out of the cell through the cell wall. If the cell wall is not rigid, the cytoplasm would appear shriveled or shrunken. This is called plasmolysis. Cell shrinkage may lave gaps between the cells and in case of guard cells; the stomatal openings may become a bit too widened.