Glowing Plants Become Reality As Scientists Inject Phosphor's "Afterglow" Into Succulent Leaves

Scientists toying with the afterglow of phosphor particles were stunned to see how uniformly they could diffuse across succulent plants when injected into their leaves. The result is a succulent that glows like something out of Avatar , lasting for hours. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

When asked if the result was surprising, first author Shuting Liu of South China Agricultural University told IFLScience: “Yes – very. Prior studies show that plant tissues severely restrict particle transport; even nanoparticles are difficult to transport in plants rapidly and in large quantities. So, observing micron-sized afterglow particles move rapidly and distribute uniformly within succulent leaves (e.g., Echeveria ‘Mebina’)