VEGETABLE VEINS

 

As you know, plants need water to grow.  Water carries nutrients from the ground to feed them.  It is absorbed by the plants’ roots, and travels up the stems by capillary action to the leaves and flowers through thin tubes, or “veins.” 

 

Want to watch it happen?

 

First, let’s try capillary action out.  You will need:

 

• 5 clear glasses

• Water

• Food color (3 different ones – we used red, blue, and yellow).

• 4 paper towels 

 

Fill each of the glasses of water about 3/4s full with water.

 

Put 5-10 drops of a single color of food coloring in the first, third, and fifth glasses of water, leaving clear water in the glasses between the three.

 

Fold each paper towel in half and then again three more times, creating a long, skinny, thick strip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prop the folded paper towels like a tent, with an end in each adjacent glass, and watch the color move up the folded paper towels to the top and then over the peaks.  Pretty cool!

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OK, so what is “capillary action”?  I’m going to quote here: (https://www.123homeschool4me.com/capillary-action-science-experiment_15/ ): 

 

Capillary action is the process in which a liquid moves up something solid, like a tube or into a material with a lot of small holes. This happens when 3 forces called cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension work together. Water molecules are considered cohesive (sticky to each other) and they adhere (stick) to the paper towel. As one water molecule moves up the paper towel it pulls the other molecules with it. The molecules pull each other along like a drawstring.

 

Now, to see the veins working in a vegetable –

 

Keep the remaining colored water in the three glasses, and break or cut off:

 

• 3 sticks of celery with leafy tops

 

Put one in each glass and leave for 24+ hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You should see the stalk and leaves turn the colors of the water.  (We tried it with four colors.  The blue and green worked very well, the red and yellow not so much.  We may have needed a higher concentration of those two colors than we did.  See what you think with your experiment!)

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Just for fun:

 

Try the same experiment using white carnations.