Chinese Scientists Create Rechargeable Succulents That Glow

Imagine strolling through a street just after sunset and seeing your path lit — not by the orange glow of a sodium street lamp, but by a row of glowing, multicoloured palm trees.

- Raul Dancel

A scene like this may soon become reality after scientists in China succeeded in making succulents called Echeveria mebina radiate in hues of red, blue and green.

They did this by injecting the plants with strontium aluminate, the same substance used in glow-in-the-dark toys that absorbs light and gradually releases it over time.

"Picture the world of Avatar, where glowing plants light up an entire ecosystem... Imagine glowing trees replacing street lights," said Dr Liu Shuting, a researcher at the South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou and co-author of a study published in the journal Matter on Aug 27, in an interview with CNN.

Their approach deviates from the traditional gene-editing technique that scientists have been using since 2018 to make glow-in-the-dark plants. Gene editing can make plants luminescent, but only in their natural green colour.