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Welcome to Plum Landing.
Roots and sh**t.
Today, we're on a mission for Plum.
We are making sponge models of plants.
So we can see how plantsin the desert
keep water inside of them.
I'm trying to make a cactus out of a green sponge.
My plant looks like a four-legged monster.
This is my plant I made.
It has roots, it has a stemand it has leaves.
Plants in the desert need to be able to collect
and hold the water.
I think plants in the desert need to be really thick
so they can store waterfor a long time,
because it doesn't rain a lot there.
We want to try putting skin on some of our sponge plants
with the wax paper.
To create a waxy skin for some of our plants.
Because the leaves on many kinds of desert plants
have a waxy skin like this.
But I left the roots open so the roots can draw the water in.
I am not going to put any wax paper on my leaves
or my stem or my roots.
Kiana also made a cactus-shaped plant.
I added toothpicks so that my cactus would stand up
like a real cactus.
First, we put our sponge plantson a plastic plate,
then we pour a quarter cup of water around the plant.
We can see water getting soaked up in the sponge.
We poured offthe leftover water.
Now we're going to leave our sponge plants out overnight
and come back tomorrow and see what they look like.
[gasps]
And the sponges, they look like they've dried out a bit.
The water evaporated.
Evaporation happened even though there was no sun.
I am now going to remove the skin from mine.
The part that was coveredwith the skin,
it's wetter because the skin kept it from evaporating.
But when I feel the roots that weren't covered in the skin,
they feel dry.
The part of my cactus that is under the skin feels wetter
than these parts.
My desert plant, because it wasn't wrapped up
in a really cool skin like Kalea's, it is dry now.
This is my cactus that was standing up.
The whole cactus is wet.
Maybe it's because it was all covered up.
Even though it was standing up,
the water went up, up, up into the cactus.
It's a lot like the real cactuses in the desert.