If there was not salt in water would all the plants die and rot in the water or would they just stay the same?

Question: If there was not salt in water would all the plants die and rot in the water or would they just stay the same?
- Keywords:
- Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more on:
  
  life
  
  plant
  
  salt
  
  water
Asked by to Ben on 19 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
- Ben Butler answered on 19 Jun 2014:
  
  Hi Bellina123, great question!
  
  Plants are pretty clever because they have evolved to live in certain conditions. The water in lakes and rivers is freshwater and doesn’t have any salt in it. In contrast the water in the sea has 35 grams of salt in every litre. This means that the plants on land and in the sea have had to evolve slightly differently.
  
  If you took a freshwater plant and gave it seawater, or a seawater plant and put it in freshwater, then it would just die and rot away like you said!

bellina123 commented on 19 Jun 2014:

Thank you for answering!

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Question: If there was not salt in water would all the plants die and rot in the water or would they just stay the same?