Colours from plants can stain — Chemistry, 4–6 years
Some plant substances have strong colours that move into water or onto cloth. People have used this chemistry to make dyes, while everyday spills show the same idea on a small scale.
Plant colour can move
A red berry, beetroot or flower contains coloured substances inside its cells. Water can carry some of that colour out, and the colour may then soak into paper, cloth or another material.
Why does the colour spread?
People needed ways to colour clothes, pictures and objects before modern paints were common. Plant dyes solved part of that problem because their coloured substances could be released and carried, although each plant gave a different colour and strength.
Making beetroot water
Put three small beetroot pieces in a cup and add warm water with an adult’s help. Wait ten minutes, then remove the pieces: the water is pink because plant colour has moved into it. Dip a strip of paper in the water and let it dry to see a stain.
Colour is not always paint
It is reasonable to think that anything coloured is simply paint sitting on the surface. But some colours come from substances inside a material and can soak, fade or change when water, light or washing reaches them.
Dyes and food stains
This idea appears in natural fabric dyes, food colouring and the purple mark left by berries. It also explains why a cloth that catches fruit juice may need quick washing: the coloured substances have started moving into its fibres.
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