Do plants breathe? Even though plants don't breathe like you do, they still need air. This experiment shows how they get it.
What You'll Need:
- Petroleum jelly
Step 1: To see how plants take air in and out, get a small plant with lots of leaves.
Step 2: Cover the tops of five leaves with a heavy coat of petroleum jelly. Then cover the undersides of five other leaves with a heavy coat of petroleum jelly.
Step 3: Look at the plants each day for a week. What happens? What does this tell you about how plants take air in and out?
There are openings on the undersides of leaves. Air moves in and out of those openings, allowing a plant to exchange gases.