Glow-in-the-dark houseplants shine in rainbow of colours
59 comments
·August 31, 2025anfractuosity
ceejayoz
I have some of these, they're quite neat. Needs to be in proper darkness - we moved ours into our bedroom as a nightlight.
The company has made statements indicating propagating for personal use is OK.
MarcelOlsz
I'm buying some and giving the seeds to as many neighbours as possible for free. Imagine patenting a fucking plant.
ceejayoz
Imagine spending years and millions of dollars doing the R&D on said plant, and finding mass-cultured clones for sale in Home Depot the next year undercutting your investment.
It's a novel invention and no one needs glowing petunias. I think that's pretty much the ideal scenario for a patent.
null
throwawaymaths
plant patents are explicitly one of THE categories of patents (in the US).
https://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/ac/ido/oeip/taf/data/patde...
ambicapter
Imagine patenting something that doesn't exist in nature that you created? It's also not a foodstuff or required for living in any way.
asimovfan
there is no normative legality of these things.. or anything.. its just whatever people decide the law to be at the time..
IAmBroom
Edit: I did not realize that the person I'm replying to was commenting on the petunias, not the article.
aaron695
[dead]
IAmBroom
The propagation won't spread the glow-in-the-dark, so why wouldn't they?
ceejayoz
The Firefly petunias retain their glow with propagation. Cloning via a cutting is the easiest and most reliable way.
The seeds are hit-or-miss, but the genes definitely get passed on in some.
anfractuosity
Why wouldn't propagation create further glowing plants, they're genetically modified?
homeonthemtn
I have a rather beautiful pot of these. Touch of fertilizer and good soil and they did excellent.
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.
el_benhameen
I preordered one of these and it was pretty disappointing. It arrived half-dead, and the glow was imperceptible even in total darkness. That could be on the shipping, but for 50 bucks I was expecting something pretty dazzling.
AuryGlenz
Eh, ours was pretty neat. I say was because my wife has a habit of killing plants.
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.
el_benhameen
I complain, but I would absolutely buy a tree sized one of these
0cf8612b2e1e
Monsanto sells seeds made sterile so that users could not breed them in the wild. “Terminator seeds”.
luqtas
first of all it's Bayer, second. going for a 2°/3°/4°... generation makes them lose their genetic resistance to specific pesticides; this is not viable economically, otherwise farmers would go for a second round out of the seeds they collected! they spend millions/billions of USD on seeds for a reason
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
psolidgold
Farmers spend millions on seeds partly because they are/were contractually obligated to NOT harvest and reuse seeds gathered from the patented GMO plants. While you're correct that resistance traits generally are less effective in F2/F3 generations, they would be committing a crime if they even attempted. Aside from this farmer-hostile position, there's plenty of other reasons to believe Monsanto and now Bayer were historically and continue to be evil. There's a relevant Veritasium video posted just 2 days ago about this very topic and I think "evil" is a very apt description. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxVXvFOPIyQ
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.
rendaw
I'm looking forward to bioluminescent ivy.
antifarben
Does anyone know how to buy them in Europe?
ceejayoz
Given the response to more mundane petunia variants (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_petunia), I strongly suspect you can't.
oneshtein
Introduction of glowing gene is a basic genetic modification, similar to "Hello, world!" in programming. Ask a biolab or do it yourself.
sampo
> Does anyone know how to buy them in Europe?
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.
croes
Europe isn’t anti-science. It’s more proven harmlessness vs dangerousness especially with food and living specimen.
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.
IlikeKitties
I assume these plants are genetically modified? Sadly that propably means that they are illegal like GloFish[0] in Europe... I'd really like to get my hands on these, owning illegal genetically modified organism sounds like an absolutely cyberpunk-esque thing i'd want to do.
mytailorisrich
No expert or lawyer but a quick online search suggests that US parents on plants only cover asexual propagation, in which case if the plant produces fertile seeds you should be fine [1]. However, offsprings may then have different characteristics.
jawns
This seems less scary, but certainly more labor-intensive, than bioluminescence, where biological mechanisms are causing the glow.
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.
yladiz
I worry we’re in the beginning of the Stray timeline.
araes
Had not actually seen the cat adventure game before the mention. Although the dead humanity timeline is quite dark, the game itself looks like an innovative adventure/mystery with a lot of physics puzzles and animal specific interactions. Neat art style and robot characterization. If I ever get back to trying games again, looks like something to investigate. Like games such as Tenchu where you're motivated to find a choice other than straight up fighting everything. Thanks for the mention if nothing else.
KaiserPro
does anyone know how they encapsulate the strontium/europium doped particles so that it doesn't kill the plant?
observationist
Injecting glow in the dark liquid into plants makes them glow in the dark... Blue dye sprayed on broccoli makes broccoli blue! Water wet, wind blows, sun rises!
This really reflects the prestige and institutional rigor of Nature these days.
lief79
If they've done the research to figure out what combination is durable and safe for the plants, then there is certainly some science there.
It's certainly more of an entertaining story than pushing the bounds of knowledge.
sambapa
Rip Terry Davis
IAmGraydon
It looks cool I guess, but wouldn't it be easier and more reliable to just mix phosphorescent chemicals into the materials used to make a fake succulent? Succulents don't really do that much in terms of growth, and there are extremely realistic fakes already available.
dist-epoch
I mean you might as well put some leds inside then.
curtisszmania
[dead]
https://light.bio/ looks more interesting than injecting glowing substances
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