Some of us thought of some great examples - an onion left in the drawer too long suddenly sprouts new growth! A potato full of eyes suddenly has buds on it after it is forgotten in the bin! These plants are growing - without a seed. Today we talked about a plant we often see around the East Village - ivy. We see it climbing up buildings, spiraling around poles, and clinging to large patches of dirt. Yet we knew that roots were the plant-part that held plants steady. Which must mean that stems can grow new roots! We decided to test this theory.
We made cuttings of ivy that included stems and leaves and put them into water. If they start drawing in the water like a root does, maybe roots will begin growing! If they do, we'll be able to plant our new plants in soil and watch them grow. We'll be observing these cuttings over the next few weeks. How exciting!
