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Coloring Flowers

We all know that water is an essential part of life, and plants are no different. Plants need water to grow, make seeds and stay healthy, but where does the water go?

Plants absorb water and minerals in a process called OSMOSIS. In osmosis, liquids pass through a plant’s membrane, or outer covering, and move through the stem to its leaves.

ACTIVITY:

Learn how plants absorb water and the path they take through the plant.

MATERIAL:

white flowers, like white carnations or Queen Anne's Lace
a plastic container
water
food coloring

PROCEDURE:

1. Fill a plastic container with water and add a few drops of food coloring.
2. Cut a small piece of the stem off of the flower.
3. Put the flower in the container of food coloring and water.
4. Check every few hours to see how the petals are changing color. The only way the petals can change color is if the food coloring travels up the stem and goes to the petals.
5. After about one day, the petals of the flower will turn from white to the color of the food coloring.

HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?:

The leaves and petals of plants have lots of small holes, which are too small to see, called stomata. Water evaporates through the stomata in a process called transpiration. Transpiration cools plants and allows a mass flow of mineral nutrients and water to travel from the plants roots to its shoots. Think of it as drinking from a straw.

Coloring the water with food coloring does not harm the plant in any way, but just like food coloring in this experiment, some chemicals that pollute our waters can get into the soil and ground water and contaminate the vegetables and plants growing in the soil. Some chemicals and pollutants can travel up into the plant, just like the food coloring, and affect its health and/or growth.

Keep exploring and find out if different colors evaporated faster or slower. You can also dye a flower two different colors by splitting the stem in half and putting it in two different containers of colored water.

REFERENCES:

http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/coloringflowers.html

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000144