Symposium on plant water relations 2024, organized by the Zhejiang Normal University, China, was held on November 22nd -25th, 2024 in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, China. More than 100 participants from 45 universities and institutes attended the symposium. Professor Melvin Thomas Tyree from Zhejiang Normal University gave a lecture titled "Water flow in plants: a brief history of the science with a few historical anecdotes". Professor Qing Ye from South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences gave a lecture titled "Linking hydraulic traits to plant adaptation, growth, and survival". Following that, experts including Prof. Timothy John Brodribb, Kunfang Cao and Chunyang Li delivered presentations on research directions of xylem hydraulic safety, plant growth adaptation, drought response and tolerance mechanism, plant hydraulic methods, plant water use strategy, plant water/carbon economy, xylem pit membrane ultrastructure and water-related research implications. This was the first symposium on plant water relations held in China.