celery experiment - how plants drink

Time required for full effect – overnight


Materials required – a new stalk of celery with leaves on it, a glass, water and food coloring

The payoff – color the water red (or blue) , cut the bottom of the celery stick as shown. put celery in the water as if it were a flower. Overnight, the celery sucks up the colored water staining the veins and the leaves.

Suggested discussions:

Preparation: how do plants grow? They need light from the sun, carbon dioxide (which we breathe out remember) from the air but they also need water and nutrients from the ground.

The roots take in water and capillary action draws that nutrient-rich water up through the veins (show them the bottom of the celery stick and notice the holes)

and just like blood in your body, that water goes all over the plant. Up through the stalk (or trunk) and through the leaves.

Put celery in the water and leave overnight for this as proof of the discussion:

Once the experiment is done, talk about how our food grows in the ground. What do you think happens if trash or chemicals are in the ground we grow food in?

Results –
before and after image:

Notice the veins running up the stalk?

Veins on the leaf bringing nutrients to the entire leaf

Good contrast of green leaf with red veins.