International Sweaty Plants

Me and my partners families both had Aloe Vera plants that died from over watering. It was wondered how a plant can survive being watered so little, why plants from different climatic regions require different conditions, and how these plants have adapted to their climatic region. It was learned that most plants transpire more than 95% of the water they take in. It was thought thought that that this can't be true for all plants especially ones that live in arid climates. The purpose of this test is to find out how different plants adapted to preserve water in terms of transpiration since plants lose so much water by this process. Plants were taken from different climatic regions with a range of precipitation levels. An Aloe Vera from an arid climatic region, a Lavender plant from a climatic region region where there is a wet and dry season, and finally an orchid from a tropical climatic region where water is always in abundance. Since transpiration is water leaving the plant in the form of water vapor, we contained the plants and tracked the transpiration by the water vapor condensing on the walls of the container. With our investigation we hoped to learn how plants from different climatic region adapted in terms of preserving water. It was believed that all of these plants have adaptations from their climatic regions and that a lower transpiration rate is one for some.

TESTABLE QUESTION

Can the precipitation level of the climatic region from which a plant comes from affect its transpiration rate, (amount of water the plant loses in the form of vapor through pores on the plant.)?

TRANSPIRATION

For a plant to stay healthy, fluids (like water), need to reach all parts of the plant.

A plants fluids is carried up by its vasc...

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...ing a container that covers most of a plant so that when it transpires it will condense and drop reaching the soil again, re-watering the plant and conserving water. Knowing that plants from dry climatic regions transpire less we can understand how they tolerate low precipitation and droughts.

NEXT STEPS

If we were to redo this project, some things we would change would be to test plants from a wider variety of climatic regions. (for e.x. Lichen from the tundra, Geraniums from Temperate, African Violets from Savanna.) We would test if plant adaptations affect different processes like respiration instead of transpiration. To see if the climatic region from which a plant comes from can affect it's reaction to hydrotropism or other tropisms.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Huge thanks to Ms. Guy who endured our rambling, and our Parents who provided us with materials.