Water Flows Up
Water Flows Up
Imagine that you have been given a job. You have been
asked to bring water from the ground to the top of the
Statue of Liberty. You cannot carry the water in a cup,
bucket, or any other container. You cannot use
electricity, a pump, or any other machines. Do you
think you could do it?
A plant could easily do this job. Tall trees carry water
and nutrients from their roots in the soil to their
topmost leaves every day. Plants have tube-like
structures inside their bodies. These tubes extend from
the root tips, through the roots, up the trunk, out the
stems, and to the leaves. This system of tubes carries
water and nutrients to all parts of the plant.
Plants need water to help them make food. Plants make
food in a process called photosynthesis. During
photosynthesis, plants use the energy from sunlight to
make food from water and carbon dioxide. In most
plants, photosynthesis takes place in the leaves. But the
water comes in through a plant’s roots. So, plants must
move water from their roots to their leaves to make
food.
Plants also move the food produced during
photosynthesis from the leaves to other plant parts. In a
carrot plant, food travels through tubes from the leaves
to the roots. In the roots, the plant turns the food, a
simple sugar, into starch. It stores the starch so it can
use it as food in the future. You can eat the stored food
in the carrot root, too!
Here’s an activity you can do to observe the way water
moves in a plant. Put water in a cup and add some food
coloring. Then, place the stem of a white daisy in the
cup. What do you think will happen to the flower after
an hour or two?
Discovery Education Science
Giant sequoia trees can grow to be as tall as
the Statue of Liberty and they easily carry
water all the way to the top.
© 2007 Discovery Communications, LLC
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Water Flows Up
Did you predict that the flower would change colors?
If so, you were correct! The plant pulls the colored
water up through the tubes in its stem to the flower.
Then the flower changes colors!
The same process of pulling water up through a
plant’s tubes happens in plants from the smallest to
the tallest. Even the world’s tallest tree can pull water
from the soil up to its highest leaves.
Discovery Education Science
© 2007 Discovery Communications, LLC
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