How do stems absorb water & nutrience?
Plants absorb water through their roots through osmosis. The water travels up tubes in the stems called phloem. The water travels to all parts of the plants, and is used during photosynthesis to make food for the plant, and also to make plant parts. When food coloring is added to the water, it travels with the water into the carnation’s white petals, coloring the phloem (tubes) blue. The blue showed up on the white petals, but since blue is a component of green (yellow is the other component), it is not so obvious on the xylem (green tissue) of the plant, even though the blue food coloring also got absorbed into the green parts like the stem, leaves, and sepals. Plants also absorb nutrients from the soil through the roots and up through the phloem in the plant’s stems. The blue food coloring illustrates how nutrients are delivered to all parts of the plant through the plant’s phloem. Water is composed of two hydrogen and one oxygen atom. One of the many gases in air is carbon dioxide.
