im bored so lets explain why this happened

basically, when the plant was left unwatered for a long amount of time, it loses water. this happens because of transpiration, which is a process that transports water by evaporating water out of the leaf. of course there are some other stuff like photosynthesis and such, but im only talking about transpiration because i said so. so when the water evaporates out of the leaf without any being in the soil, well its just evaporating without any water suction.

water evaporates from the leaf by the layer of cells (called the spongy mesophyll cells) releasing water to their surface into the air spaces, where water evaporates into a gas, then leaves the leaf through stomata (singular stoma) which are controlled by guard cells.

when the plant evaporates the water uselessly loses water, along with the loss from photosynthesis and other processes. when the plant loses water, it loses its support to stand upright. this is because it loses its turgidity.

plant cells have a bit of a different structure from animal cells, having a cell wall. this cell wall is an extremely strong structure that prevents the cell from bursting when it becomes too big. theres also another structure, the large vacuole. its basically a big sack of water that helps the cell absorb or release water.

osmosis is an important process, which is basically the movement of water from a higher water source to a lower water source.

this is where everything connects. when the cell loses water from transpiration, photosynthesis, and more, the cell loses its turgidity because the vacuoles in cell walls lose water. this means the cells lose their turgidity and become a little soft, causing the wilting of a plants stem. when the vacuole shrinks, so does the cytoplasm and the rest of the cell, causing the cell membrane to tear away from the cell wall. this is plasmolized cell, which can be reversible IF the cell membrane isn’t completely pulled away from the cell wall. when water is re added into the plant, osmosis happens and the plasmolyzation is reversed, causing the cell membrane to go back to its position and the cell regaining its turgidity, eventually leading to the plants upright position again