Glowing succulents. Credit: Liu et al., Matter
Researchers have injected succulents with light-emitting compounds to produce multicolour luminescent plants for the first time. The work brings us a step closer to developing sustainable, plant-based lighting.
“Picture the world of Avatar, where glowing plants light up an entire ecosystem,” says Shuting Liu of South China Agricultural University, first author of the study presenting the research in the journal Matter.
“We wanted to make that vision possible using materials we already work with in the lab. Imagine glowing trees replacing streetlights.”
The injected ‘afterglow phosphor particles’ absorb sunlight and release it slowly over time as coloured light.
“Their phosphorescence originates from the delayed release of excitation energy stored in energy traps, triggered by ambient disturbances, including thermal energy, mechanical force, and light,” write the authors.
Through experiments the researchers determined the particles worked best when fabricated at sizes of about 7 micrometres in diameter – roughly the width of a red blood cell.
“Smaller, nano-sized particles move easily within the plant but are dimmer,” Liu explains. “Larger particles glowed brighter but couldn’t travel far inside the plant.”
Of all the plant species injected, including golden pothos and bok choy, experiments proved Echeveria ‘Mebina’ succulents to be the best candidate.
“It was really unexpected,” says Liu, noting that she initially thought plants with airy tissue structures would perform better. “The particles diffused in just seconds, and the entire succulent leaf glowed.”
“This succulent’s compact microstructure and abundant intercellular spaces facilitate efficient transport of larger particles, resulting in uniform, enhanced, multicolour luminescence,” the authors explain. “This approach surpasses the traditional trade-off between particle size and luminescence performance, producing brightly luminescent plants with sunlight recharging and, for the first time, enabling successful development of multicolour luminescent plants.”
“Although genetic engineering has enabled the development of whole plants that emit green light by introducing bioluminescent systems, such as the world’s first glowing plant product, a luminescent petunia, launched by Light Bio in the US in 2024, genetically engineered luminescent plants still suffer from several limitations,” the authors write.
“These include the low efficiency of luminescence production, emission restricted to the green wavelength range, negative effects caused by the high expression of heterologous proteins in plants, technical complexity, high cost, long cultivation cycles, consumption of photosynthetic energy, and potential risks of gene drift.”
The researchers say theirs are the first plants created with visible blue, green, red, and blue-violet afterglow “…expanding the luminescence spectrum to cover the primary visible range (400–650 nm)”.
“Each plant takes about 10 minutes to prepare and costs a little over 10 yuan (about US$1.4), not including labour,” adds Liu.
The light produced by the phosphor particles stayed visible for up to 2 hours and remained stable after 10 days.
The researchers suggest the glowing succulents could offer a sustainable alternative for low-intensity lighting in pathways, gardens or indoors. They plant to continue to study the long-term safety of the materials on the plants.