The various pigments in the spinach leaves separated out according to their affinity for the paper. The resulting chromatogram looks something like this. Chlorophyll b was the first pigment to separate out. Above that is Chlorophyll a, then xanthophyll, and finally at the very top is carotene. Elodea and phenol red were added to a test tube.
Phenol red is yellow when acidic and red when alkaline.
The pictures below show three tubes taken at successive time intervals. Notice the color of the phenolphthalein changes as the Elodea photosynthesizes. A few leaves were partially covered for one week to that part of the leaves were shaded and thus presumably did not photosynthesize. Regions of the leave that photosynthesized would turn a dark brown color due to the presence of starch. Variegated Coleus leaves were also used.