Useful parts of plants: rattan, sugar cane, vanilla

Activity overview

Run the activity

This activity has been co-created with the Eden Project as part of Explorify’s collaboration with Science and Discovery Centres.

1. Show the three images above and ask everyone to come up with as many similarities and differences as they can. If they get stuck, prompt them to think about:

• appearance
• what they do
• where they might be found

2. Then, everyone needs to decide which one is the odd one out and why. Encourage a reason for every answer and there is no wrong answer!

Background science

All three photos show the stems of plants. The function of the stem is to provide support and strength and to allow water to be transported from the roots of the plant. With a climber or vine such as rattan and vanilla, the plant attaches itself to other plants for support.

Rattan is a name given to many similar plants that grow in tropical Asia, Africa, and Australia. They’re a type of palm that grows more like a vine, climbing over and through other plants much in the way that brambles do – only they’re a lot bigger than brambles. Like brambles, they have sharp hooks on the stems which deter herbivores, but also help the plant to cling to and climb up trees. They’re fast growing, like bamboo and willow. Wicker furniture is made from rattan, but also baskets and canes for umbrellas and walking sticks (like those named after the ports of Malacca or Manila). Nearly all rattan is harvested from the wild, rather than farmed. Before rattan can be made into furniture, it’s stripped of the hooked spikes you see in the photograph, dried (seasoned), straightened, and soaked in oil (cured).

The stems of sugar cane - a perennial, tropical grass - can grow up to six metres in height. Those stems are harvested and processed into sugar crystals, while the fibrous waste produced (bagasse) can be turned into paper or used as a fuel. Almost half of the sugar consumed in the UK comes from cane; the rest is made from a root vegetable called sugar beet that grows in cooler climates. The resulting sugar (sucrose) is visually and chemically the same, whether it’s made from cane or beet. In fact, all green plants produce sugar, along with oxygen, as a result of photosynthesis. Sugar cane contains a particularly high concentration of sucrose, as does sugar beet.

Vanilla is an orchid that grows as a vine up to 90 metres long, clinging to trees and producing flowers that last no longer than a day. Preferring to grow in hot, humid, high-up places, it’s pollinated in its native Mexico by bees, and occasionally hummingbirds. The vanilla now farmed in Madagascar and elsewhere must be pollinated by hand in order to produce fruit, making it the second most expensive spice in the world (after saffron). The long pods (sometimes called beans) which contain the fragrant, flavourful seeds have to be dried, steam-cured and fermented before use. Vanilla was introduced to Europe in the 1520s by the Spanish, who learned about it from the Aztecs. They added it to a cold drink made with cacao (but not milk). A lot of the vanilla we think is vanilla is, in fact, artificial.  

Image credit: Vanilla by Sandi Somantri on Canva

Watch out for... 

Plants have many more uses than simply nourishing us with food. Children may also not be clear about the variety of plants and plant parts we eat. As well as the fruit, we eat the stems, flowers, roots, seeds, and leaves of particular plants. 

This does not need to be corrected during the session, but you can pick it up later.

Take it further

Activities

To help children make the link between the pictures of the plant growing in its natural habitat and the products they become, it is a good idea to show the children some of the products – ideally the actual items, but if this isn’t possible, using pictures.
 
For this activity, you could, for example, find: 

• RATTAN a rattan basket.
• SUGAR CANE some sugar granules or cubes.
• VANILLA a vanilla pod or jar of extract/essence.

Pass around the objects made from the three plants. Encourage the children to use their senses as they handle them. Then discuss where they have encountered the objects before. Show the images of the three plants and explain that each object is made from one of them. Can they suggest which one is which and offer a reason why?

Kew has produced three lessons that teach children why plants matter in our daily lives for food, shelter, medicine and wellbeing along with instructions on how to create a plant museum. 

This TAPS Focused Assessment Task explores dissolving with a stack of sugar cubes.  

Children could look at the labels on foods to identify how much sugar they contain (5g is the equivalent of one teaspoon). They could calculate how many teaspoons of sugar they consume each day, using sugar cubes to make a pictogram of their results.

Use vanilla to flavour ice-cream that you can make in a bag using these instructions. Or make a vanilla and banana milkshake by blending banana, milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence/extract together.

If you are in the area, consider Visiting Eden for an educational experience that will connect your pupils with nature in an immersive and unforgettable way. 
 
Or you could take an exciting virtual tour of the Eden Project here.  
 
Linked Explorify activities - our recommendations:

• Odd One Out Useful parts of plants: bamboo, cinnamon, rubber tree Which of these plants do we eat, or do they have other uses?  
• Odd One Out Useful parts of plants: coffee, cacao, lentils Which of these plants do we eat, or do they have other uses?  
• What’s Going On? Fantastic fibres This film shows paper being made in two different ways, from papyrus and from wood pulp.
• Zoom In, Zoom Out Bumpy eyes  A close-up look at a pineapple.
• Zoom In, Zoom Out Blackened edges 
• Zoom In, Zoom Out Orange and waxy Learn about the Prickly Pear, a cactus grown for its vitamin C rich fruit.
• What If? What If all plants were the same? Consider the value and huge variety of plants.

Watch

This film from Chester Zoo explains how replacing forests with crops to make money - deforestation – causes a problem for the animals that lived there.

Cross-curricular

In Geography, mark on a world map where these plants grow.