What happens when rain lands on a leaf?

After a rain shower, the garden glitters. Leaves shine, and little drops sit on top of them. Have you ever touched a wet leaf? It feels cool and slippery under your finger.

Those drops all came down as rain. So what happens when rain lands on a leaf? Let's follow one raindrop and find out.

Plip! The raindrop taps the leaf, and the leaf dips down. The leaf is thin and bendy, so it gives a little under the tap. Then it springs right back up.

Now look closely at the top of the leaf. A leaf wears wax, which means a thin, slippery coat, like the outside of a crayon. The wax keeps rainwater from soaking into the leaf.

Water barely sticks to the wax. So the raindrop hugs itself into a round bead, which means a small ball of water. That is why wet leaves look dotted with shiny balls.

The leaf leans down toward its pointy tip. The Earth pulls everything down, so the bead rolls that way. Down it slides, along the slippery wax.

On the way, the bead bumps into other beads. They join together into one big bead. Now it is heavier than before. What do you think the big, heavy bead will do when it reaches the tip?

It hangs from the tip for a moment, wobbling. Then it grows too heavy to hold on. Drip! It falls off the leaf to the ground below.

The leaf is left shiny and almost dry. Only a few small beads still sparkle on it. The wax has done its job.

Rain barely sticks to a leaf's wax, so each drop makes a bead and rolls off.

One last bead slides to the tip of a leaf and lets go. All across the garden, the waxy leaves shine, almost dry.