6 – 22 April

WELCOME TO HORRIBLE SCIENCE AT WAKEHURST

Horrible Science® is a registered trademark of Scholastic Ltd. And is used under authorization. All rights reserved. Based on the bestselling books written by Nick Arnold and illustrated by Tony De Saulles. Illustration copyright ©Tony de Saulles.Licensed by Scholastic Children's books through Rocket Licensing Ltd.

Wicked weeds hunt | Horrid science lab | Gruesome plant games

TEST YOUR GROWN-UPS!

This is a green and terrifying world where horrible things happen every day. A world where death can be an ugly tendril slowly reaching out to strangle its victim. A world where the only aim is to stay alive. Welcome to Horrible Science at Wakehurst.

WELCOME TO ANOTHER WORLD

1 How much ground can one grass plant cover?

a) One square metre

b) As much as a small garden

c) As much as a large fi eld

2 How long can a seed survive before it dies?

a) Ten months

b) Ten years

c) Ten thousand years

3 Some plants puff out gas from their leaves – other plants of the same species (type) take the gas in through theirs. The gas carries a message, but what is it?

a) I ‘lurve’ your fl owers

b) Make more fruit

c) BEWARE – hungry giraffes on the rampage

4 Where might you � nd a plant growing?a) Between your toes

b) Inside a solid rock

c) Underneath the snow in the Antarctic

Even a chimp can get a third of these questions right, because there are only three possible answers. So how will your grown-up get on?

5 What do some plants do if you breathe on them?

a) Turn your breath to a poisonous gas and puff it back at you

b) Wilt

c) Turn your breath into sugar and eat it

6 What substance is NEVER made by trees?

a) A red fl uid that looks suspiciously like blood

b) Dew

c) The stuff they use to make chocolate

7 How do some plants keep warm?a) Central heating

b) Hairy leaves

c) Shivering

8 What do some plants do when they’re thirsty?

a) Grow special windows in their leaves that let the sun in without letting water out

b) Cut bits off their own bodies

c) Cover themselves in a sort of cling-fi lm

9 Which of these objects might be a plant in disguise?

a) A bird’s dropping

b) A weird mushroom-shaped object

c) A pebble

VICIOUS VOCABULARY

Link the words to their meanings.

TRANSPIRATION

POLLINATION

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

GYMNOSPERM

MYCOLOGISTS

GERMINATION

ANGIOSPERM

CHLOROPHYLL

LIGNIN

MESOCARPA plant with seeds

that are open

rather than being

wrapped in a fl ower

The substance in

trees that holds the

fi bres together

Fungi-studying scientists

The fl eshy bit of a fruit

The process of soaking

up water through roots

and then losing it

through leaves

A fl owering plant

The growth of a baby plant inside a seed

The process of turning sunlight, water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar

The process of transferring pollen from one plant to another

The green substance used by

plants to make food from sunshine

HORRIBLE SCIENCE AT WAKEHURST

Walled Garden

Wanted postersStink workshops

Botanist hall of fame

Potty planting

Mud Kitchen

Gruesome gamesFreaky face-painting

Seed storytelling

to Visitor Centre

Formal Gardens

Pinetum

Stables

Restaurant

Mansion

Horrid lab

Horrid lab Get your lab coat on and investigate foul fungi and meet our creepy carnivorous plants.

Gruesome games Can you fi nd the nastiest plant? Discover a foul fact or two.

Freaky face-painting Be transformed into a frightening animal, a villainous plant, or your favourite fl ower.

Wicked weeds detective hunt Set off on a chocolate hunt through the woods and hunt down Iris’ killer!

Millennium

Seed Bank

Crime solution station Did you fi nd the killer?

Botanist hall of fame Explore our exhibition of famous botanists from the past and present in the Mansion gallery.

Potty planting Join us in the Potting Shed to get your hands dirty and plant some beans.

Stink workshops What horrid smells can you create at our stink workshops?

Gruesome gamesFreaky face-painting

Seed storytelling

Wicked weeds detective hunt

BloomersValley

BethlehemWood

CoatesWood

Crime solution station

Tree TrunkTrekSeed storytelling Join our

bumbling botanist Professor Bloom. Stories at regular intervals between 10.30am and 3.30pm.

Wanted poster making Visit our wicked weeds crime desk and create your own ‘wanted poster’.

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1 c) Scientists have found that a field of fescue (a type of grass) is often one plant.

2 c) In 1982, Japanese scientists found a 10,000-year-old magnolia seed in a storage pit. They planted it and the incredible seed became a healthy plant.

3 c) When an African acacia is attacked by a hungry giraffe, its leaves make a foul-tasting poison to put the giraffe off. They also puff out ethylene (eth-y-lene) gas. Nearby acacia trees take in the gas through tiny holes in their leaves called stomata (sto-ma-ta) and start making the poison, too.

4 Trick question – it’s b) AND c) but not a). Some people suffer from athlete’s foot fungi, but these aren’t plants. As for b) some algae in Antarctica live inside sandstone rock. They get in through cracks and are kept alive by sunlight that filters through see-through grains in the rock. c) Other Antarctic algae live in snow. They make a kind of antifreeze to stop their bodies freezing up.

5 c) Your breath contains carbon dioxide gas. A plant takes this in through its stomata and turns the carbon into sugar. The plant uses the sugar as energy to grow.

6 b) Although you might find drops of dew on trees, the dew is actually tiny drops of water that formed in the air. So dew is not made by plants. As for a) the red stuff is a gum that oozes from the Australian bloodwood tree if you cut its bark. The gum protects the cut as it heals. c) Chocolate is made from the crushed seeds of the cacao tree.

7 b) Edelweiss plants have hairy leaves to keep them warm in the Alps where they grow. Lobelia flowers on Mount Kenya in East Africa grow on a hairy stem. The hair protects the flowers from freezing just like a fur coat.

8 Ha – another trick question! Plants do all these things. Give your grown-up ONE mark for saying “all of them”. But a miserable half mark for suggesting either a), b) or c).

a) Window plants in the Namib desert in south-west Africa make special see-through crystals to protect their leaves from the hot sun.

b) Plants lose water through their stomata. The Namibian quiver tree grows a wall inside its trunk to cut off a branch. When the branch falls off, there are fewer leaves to lose water.

c) Many plants protect themselves from drying out by pumping out a waxy layer from their stomata. This covers the leaves and stops them losing water.

9 Another viciously vile question! The answer is a) AND c) but not b). The weird object in b) is a stromatolite made of mud and a type of bacteria that contains chlorophyll. But these bacteria aren’t counted as plants. Stromatolites are found on some beaches in Australia. a) Is an anacampseros (anna-camp-se-ros) plant that lives in dry areas. Animals don’t scoff it because it looks like a bird dropping. c) Is a pebble plant from the deserts of Africa. It disguises itself to stop animals eating it.

What your grown-up’s score means:

9 Impossible. NO grown-up in history has ever scored this high… unless they’ve been secretly peeking at this booklet?

7–8 BEWARE. Your grown up is a secret botanist. Signs to look for are green fingers, always talking about plants, and knowing all the Latin names of plants.

4–6 Average – could try harder. Just a common-or-garden grown-up, really.

0–3 This is sad. Your grown-up needs to turn over a new leaf and do some botany homework.

ANSWERS