Select a nice leaf
Boil the leaf in water for 30s to remove the waxy cuticle and stop the chemical reactions in the leaf.
Place the leaf in a boiling tube and fill it with ethanol
Put the boiling tube in the warm water with the Bunsen burner off.
The ethanol is flammable and we don't want any accidents!
The ethanol might even start bubbling as it has a low boiling point.
The ethanol will have dissolved all of the chlorophyll so it goes green and the leaf becomes colourless
The leaf has lost its water so it is stiff and brittle so it is washed in water to make it flexible
The leaf is then spread out on a petri dish.
Then iodine is added to the leaf. If it turns black it contains starch.
These leaves certainly did turn black.
But some did have orange brown patches on them.
This is probably where part of the leaf was in the shade.
