I wonder why…
… leaves turn brown and decompose if you leave them on the ground,
but stay pretty and fresh-looking if you press them in a book?
2 Responses on “I wonder why…”
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… leaves turn brown and decompose if you leave them on the ground,
but stay pretty and fresh-looking if you press them in a book?
Not sure if you’d like an answer to this one, but if you do, the mere fact of pressing a leaf in a book prevents most air molecules from reaching the leaf. Air (or at least oxygen and nitrogen) causes a reaction called chlorophyll catabolism – in simple words, the chlorophyll (what keeps the leaf color true, most of the time) is broken down into a serie of compounds, including sugar.
And we all know what happens to raw sugar left in the open – it rusts.
That’s your answer
Sweet, thanks! Now I know.