Want to see flowers change colour like magic? We have a trick for that--though it involves science, not magic! Try the activity below for yourself to see how plants drink.
Materials:
White carnations (or other white flowers)
Liquid food colouring
Water
Glasses or cups
Instructions:
Add water to each cup. Then, add a different colour of dye to each cup until the water looks pigmented.
Add a carnation to each glass of coloured water. You may need to trim the stem in order for the flower to fit into the glass, and this will help with absorption.
Check on the flower every few hours and observe the changes.
How it works:
Plants need water to survive, just like humans. But plants don’t have a mouth to drink through. Instead, they drink through their roots, and then the water is carried up through the stem to the petals of the flower. When we put the flowers stem in coloured water, the stem carried that coloured water to the petals, which is why they changed colour.