Hi there! Did you know that flowers are not only beautiful but also come in all sorts of sizes? Some flowers are so big, like the Rafflesia flower found in Southeast Asia, that they can amaze anyone who sees them!
Our friend Yahya has a great question: How do flowers bloom in the spring? Well, let’s find out together!
In early spring, you might see green leaves and stems starting to grow. It’s like they’re waking up from a long nap. Then, almost like magic, a flower suddenly pops open on top! This happens with small plants and even big trees.
Plants might not move around like animals, but they do move in their own special way. Animals have muscles to help them move, but plants don’t. So, how do they do it?
Plants can open their flower petals and even twist to reach for the sun. Some, like the Venus Flytrap, can even catch insects! But how do they move without muscles?
Here’s a clue: Think about what happens in spring. There’s lots of sunlight and warmth, but also plenty of rain. After it rains, flowers start to bloom everywhere!
Plants soak up water from their roots. They need water to live and grow, just like we do. But water also helps them move. Imagine dipping a paper towel in water and watching the water climb up the towel. Water can move in surprising ways!
When a plant is dry and you water it, the stems that were drooping stand up straight again. This shows how plants use water to move, even without muscles.
We’ve got a fun activity for you to try! You can explore how water helps plants move. Check out the link at the end of the video to see how it works.
Thanks, Yahya, for your awesome question! Now, it’s your turn to choose what we explore next. Here are some questions to think about: How do you make cardboard? Do all plants grow from seeds? Or, why do we have eyebrows?
Vote for your favorite question after the video. Remember, there are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next time!
Flower Observation Journal: Go on a nature walk with an adult and find different types of flowers. Take a small notebook and draw the flowers you see. Write down their colors, shapes, and sizes. Try to find out their names if you can. At home, discuss with your family how these flowers might use water to bloom and grow. Do you notice any flowers that are reaching towards the sun?
Water Movement Experiment: Take a white carnation or a celery stalk and place it in a glass of water mixed with food coloring. Watch over a few days to see how the color moves up the stem and into the petals or leaves. This shows how water travels through plants. Talk about how this helps plants move and grow.
Plant Movement Dance: Pretend to be a plant! Start as a seed by curling up on the ground. Slowly grow into a sprout by stretching your arms and legs. As you “bloom,” open your arms wide like flower petals. Imagine the sun is shining on you and move towards it. Think about how plants move without muscles and try to mimic that in your dance.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the YouTube transcript:
—
Hi, it’s Doug. Flowers are known for being beautiful, and when I think about them, I also like to consider the extremes. For example, what are the biggest flowers in the world? One of them is the Rafflesia flower, which is found in Southeast Asia. It’s absolutely enormous.
Someone named Yahya has a question about flowers. Let’s give him a call now.
Hi, Yahya.
I have a question for you. How do flowers bloom in the spring?
That is a great question. In early spring, you might notice green leaves or stems starting to grow little by little each day. But the amazing thing about flowers is that one day, poof! Almost like magic, it’s not just leaves and a stem anymore; a flower pops open on top. And it’s not just small plants either—many trees have flowers that bloom in springtime too.
How do plants do this? One interesting aspect of this question is that plants aren’t exactly known for moving or doing anything exciting that catches our attention, like animals do. Animals have muscles, which enable them to move around. In fact, we even use part of the word “animal” in words like “animate” or “animation,” which involve movement.
But plants really do move, as you can see in a sped-up video. They not only open their flower petals, but they also twist and reach for the sun. Some plants even capture insects, like the Venus Flytrap. Yet, unlike animals, plants have no muscles.
If plants don’t have muscles, then how do they move? How do they make flowers pop open in springtime? Before I continue, now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? One important clue is to notice what else happens in springtime when most flowers bloom. Springtime might make you think of sunlight and warmth, and plants do need sunlight, but there’s something else that happens with the weather in spring: lots of rain. It’s usually after springtime rain that we see so many flowers start blooming.
You probably know that plants soak up water from their roots. Like all living things, plants need that water to live and grow. But could it be that plants also use water to move? It might seem a little strange to think of water as something that can cause movement.
Think of a familiar situation: when a paper towel gets dipped into a cup of water, notice how the water moves up the paper towel. Or, in another example, if someone puts food coloring in water and dips a paper towel in each cup, the water slowly moves from cup to cup. Water has some surprising properties. It can move up surfaces, like a paper towel.
One way to see the power of water in plants is to notice what happens when you water a plant that’s been really dry. In a sped-up video, you can see how the plant stems were drooping, but after the plant gets watered, the stems stand up straight again. So even though plants don’t have muscles, they can soak up water from the ground and use some of the surprising properties of water to make parts of themselves move.
Now, for this week’s episode, we’ve created an activity where you can explore one of these surprising properties of water and really see for yourself how this works. There will be a link to the activity at the end of this video.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Yahya, for asking it. Now, for the next episode, here are the three questions I picked from the question jar a few weeks ago before we did our special episodes. If you already voted in this poll, that’s okay. When this video is done playing, you can vote again. Here are the choices: How do you make cardboard? Do all plants grow from seeds? Or, why do we have eyebrows?
So submit your vote when the video is over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
—
Let me know if you need any further modifications!
