The falling leaves of Autumn

One of the most common questions I am asked when teaching plants is why do the leaves of deciduous trees change colour before they fall off in autumn.

To answer that question I have come across this excellent video:

[youtube id=”JWva5AaDkXw”]

Within subtopic 2.9 you will also have opportunity to separate and identify the photosynthetic pigments from the leaves of a plant (spinach leaves are good): carotene, xanthopyll and chlorophyll through paper chromatography (Practical 4).

The following is a virtual run through of the experiment and of the salient points.

Remember, as this lab is a mandatory experiment, elements of the practical may be in your exam come May 2016 onwards