Glow-in-the-dark houseplants shine in rainbow of colours
nature.com
nature.com
Heh, I just came across this though "Our Firefly Petunias are protected under patent, and as such, propagation and breeding are not permitted. These petunias are sold exclusively for personal use."
Edit: https://patents.google.com/patent/US11913033B2 curious if anyone has come across DIY versions?
Did also find - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glowing_Plant_project
The company has made statements indicating propagating for personal use is OK.
It's a novel invention and no one needs glowing petunias. I think that's pretty much the ideal scenario for a patent.
Also, exerting control over a commercial cloning effort and trying to control personal use and propagation are totally different scenarios.
The reality is their business is just not going to be substantially hurt by personal propagation and use.
Practically? Unless you gift it to a thousand "friends", they're unlikely to a) hear of it, b) care about it, or c) break even on the legal costs of going after it.
We have the USDA for these things. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/program-update/aphis-issues-...
> APHIS found this modified petunia is unlikely to pose an increased plant pest risk compared to other cultivated petunia. As a result, it is not subject to regulation under 7 CFR part 340. From a plant pest risk perspective, this petunia may be safely grown and bred in the United States.
No one's putting in decades of R&D into something like this if they can only sell a few thousand for a single year before the big nurseries take over.
https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/data/patde...
Corn mazes are actually created by selectively planing the corn in a pattern or by selectively cutting down plants to create the maze. This can be done with a variety of different plants, but corn is a popular choice because of it's height, durability, and the timing of its harvest.
I suspect the similarity of its other name (maize) is just a coincidence.
The seeds are hit-or-miss, but the genes definitely get passed on in some.
The glow is most evident in new growth, so you want them healthy. And you will need total darkness to see them, ala any other bioluminescent fungi or plant.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/124539-curiously-enough-the...
My mom’s is still going, and she’s made some cuttings that have done well. The glow is super dim, sure, but it’s still neat. Hopefully we can eventually get full size trees with the same effect - the size alone would add a lot of brightness.
i don't like monocultures or "closed source science" but this talk about Monsanto being evil is rather weak and kept by people who think organics are the solution to sustainability; meanwhile they use mores pesticides/herbicides/fungicides than GMO, they have authorization to even use synthetics by USDA (or whatever your country's forum) and they use more land... organic has much more less research on health outcomes and they have MUCH LESS specialized equipment to spray poison around in precise quantities down to 10 mililiters per 1 kilometer sq in some scenarios you find in GMO farms
Secondly, your claims about organic farming are way more nuanced than you're making them out to be. For instance, the pesticides used in organic farming have way different toxicity profiles than conventional farming pesticides. The argument of "they use more pesticides" doesn't hold water under serious scrutiny.
Finally, you're creating an false dichotomy where everyone who criticizes Monsanto/Bayer must have a pro-organic stance. I am allowed to think that Monsanto/Bayer is evil while also supporting GMO farming. In fact, that's my exact position.
organics literally don't even compose 3% of the whole world food production. if we have a sane society that doesn't think only about meat and money, GMO research on various other crops would be pretty beautiful by now
again, i don't like proprietary science nor greed billionaire companies with no pro-social intention but they are screwing the planet much less than farmers going organic because "sustainability". rural flight is a solid phenomena, which by the way, still happens. high-tech farms allows machines do the work everyone doesn't want to and don't cite me some few people that would stay there if wasn't for the "aggressive competition of GMO [3]"(which goes from resources efficiency, investment and financial returns), because farming scores uber high on modern slavery. being a field worker applying a substance that can kill you in a minute if you swallow a swig and the hard endurance work of farming stuff has no comparison against city jobs... i worked for a year volunteering on WWOOF and the situation of some workers is miserable. most of the times organic is about the tech enthusiast or medium/upper class retiring into the country while running their production out of cheap labor that even if it was well paid, you probably don't want to retire as a working class farm field worker
[0] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S240584402... [3] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4218791/
Given the strong anti-science anti-GMO sentiment in Europe, the company probably will not even bother to try to apply for a permit from the European regulatory agencies.
Given the reaction time of politics and the industry I consider that a good thing.
If you want to see strong anti-science look at the current US administration.
When it comes to GMO plants, Europe is anti-science.
European Commission had a Chief Scientific Adviser, but they happened to choose a plant biologist for the role [1]. Then she dared to speak the scientific consensus about GMO plants (they're safe) [2] and EU decided to close the whole role [1,3] to get rid of her.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Glover_(biologist)#Europe...
[2] https://www.aei.org/articles/aaas-scientists-consensus-gmo-s...
[3] https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn25957-dont-scrap-euro...
Note for others that it’s actually very difficult to accurately take a photo of the glow. They are overall quite “dim”, requiring near total darkness and eyes adapted to darkness for a bit to see. Unfortunately, if you expect what you see in the marketing materials, you’ll be disappointed. Cameras tend to either be unable to see the glow, or blow it way out of proportion. They are quite a bit above your typical glowing fungus though.
They can also be kinda finicky to grow until you learn what they need. Basically:
-Full sun. Internode length directly correlates with light received. I can make them “leggy” or ultra dense with my adjustable lights.
-Prefer cooler temperatures. They don’t seem to like high 80’s to 90’s. Seem to prefer 60-70 degrees F
-They happily survive the winter while inside, and can survive multiple years. Temps below 40F will cause them to start shutting down, with freezing/frost having a good chance to kill them.
-Need well drained soil. Straight potting soil will hold too much moisture for too long, causing root rot.
-Prefer bigger and deeper pots, like 10+”. I’d consider 6” the minimum
-Like being spoon fed fertilizer with waterings. Jack’s petunia feed is perfect.
-May be slightly sensitive to chlorine/chloramine in tap water. I suspect it contributes to some curious yellowing on the leaves. A bit of API stress coat takes care of that. This is good for other house plants as well.
-Sometimes the leaves will have curious yellowing (yellow veins, leaf tips) no matter what you do. It may just be how it is.
-Can be prone to fasciation (mutant flowers or stalks)
-When outside, can get bud worms that chew the flowers, leaves, or developing seed pods
-Fungus gnats can be an issue, especially when propagating cuttings.
-Susceptible to downy mildew (seen mostly in late summer/fall)
-They respond well to being chopped back every so often. I’ll occasionally remove 1/3rd to 2/3rds of their top mass. This also has the benefit of removing weight from the initially thin and weak stems (which thicken over time).
-Can be crossed with other petunias, and sometimes even tobacco. Note that pigments in the flowers from other petunia varieties block the glow, so they’ll be dimmer.
-Wild petunias (or whatever the ancestor plants are) rely on moths for pollination. You can get lots of seeds by manually pollinating the flowers.
-They tend to emit more fragrance at night (for attracting moths)
-The newest growth is the brightest, in particular the recently developed flowers that haven’t opened yet which truly look “glowing”. Normally the glow of most of the plant, is comparable to taking it outside into moonlight. The brightness will shift from day to day as well. Sometimes it’ll be much dimmer or brighter than normal.
reddit.com/r/FireflyPetunia/
If you want “cool glowing thing” but something less intensive, and momentarily much brighter, you may look into getting a glowing algae kit, like pyrofarms.com/
Because the particles are injected into the plant but don't mess with the plant at a biological level, you're not going to be able to breed them. It's almost equivalent to painting their surface.
This really reflects the prestige and institutional rigor of Nature these days.
It's certainly more of an entertaining story than pushing the bounds of knowledge.