Group 4 Project - Hydrangeas (need HELP)

[I-Bugger]

So my group 4 project will be in about a month from now. My school has arranged it to be done at a campsite in the mountains. I've been assigned to a group of 3, 1 physics, 1 bio, 1 chem. I'm the physics student. My group has chosen to work the project around a type of flower called hydrangeas. If you want to know more about them, here you go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrangea

So... Truthfully... Admidtedly... Actually... I'm confused of what to do. Hydrangeas grow wildly all over the campsite. Their colors are determined by the soil pH which will eventually change their pigmentation. So they're not that much affected by physical conditions. So i need to come out with a physics project that can be done in maximum of 2 days at the campsite which relates to the hydrangeas. I can't think of anything more than measuring the temperature and humidity of the surroundings. So could anyone give some suggestions... Thx b4

[Tsuun]

Bleh, I agree that the topic isn't very applicable to physics. The only thing I found was from an Oxford Journal, http://pcp.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/3/262.long.

Sepal and cell color measurement of hydrangea: In the past flower petal color was measured first using the opal glass transmission method (Saito 1967) and subsequently (Asen et al. 1971a,Asen et al. 1971b, Asen et al. 1975) and his group (Stewart et al. 1975) reported micro-spectrophotomeric measurement with peeled epidermis. It is also possible to use the integral sphere as a reflection spectrum. However, petal color tone could be affected by the shape of epidermal cells (Noda et al. 1994) and reflection spectra suffer from light scattering due to the structure of petal tissue. To reveal the true color absorption spectrum, an individual cell must be measured."

Thats the only thing I could find that was somewhat applicable to physics on the subject and it seems like a hard thing to measure only using high school equipment.

Noda et al. 1994 doesn't seem to be available for free, however the abstract states:
"Pigmentation can also be affected by the shape of epidermal cells, especially those facing prospective pollinators^3,4. A conical shape is believed to increase the proportion of incident light that enters the epidermal cells, enhancing light absorption by the floral pigments, and thus the intensity of their colour."

You could ask for the entire journal on pages like Reddit under the subreddit /r/scholar, or if your school has access to journals.

Edited May 3, 2013 by Tsuun

[I-Bugger]

thx for the suggestions Tsuun

True my school doesn't have any high tech equipment right now, but i could still request for it

Also i know a friend who may have access to journals

So againm thx