ilovebacteria - Colored flowers experiment.

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Colored flowers	Why does this work?
Flowers take up water by a process called capillary action and you can demonstrate this by turning a white flower a different color! Ingredients Giant daisy or carnation Glass of water Food coloring Recipe Place the flower in a glass of water Add 15 drops of food coloring (Whatever color you want) Leave for a few days and watch it change color!	Plants take up water through their roots but how does it get up their stem? The answer to this is that they take up water by capillary action. This occurs because water molecules stick together and to the walls of the tube which they are climbing up. They will carry on climbing until gravity gets too much. Bigger plants need transpiration to make sure that they get enough water to the high up parts - this involves the continual loss of water from the leaves dragging water up through the plant. The flower in this experiment changed color because it took up the dye with the water - if you look closely at the petal you should be able to see the veins containing the colored dye. Another experiment to demonstrate capillary action can be carried out by making a really thin tube of paper and placing the end in a glass of colored water - the level in the tube should be higher that in the glass.

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Do try this at home