The light fantastic

This article was published in the March 2024 issue of Garden Center.

Garden consumers demand healthier plants that produce more fruit and vegetables and bigger, more colorful blooms. And plant breeders have responded with innovations that lean into consumer needs. Plants have been bred to be drought and disease resistant. They have been bred to create stunning visuals, like bright blooms against nearly black foliage. They have been bred to grow in unique habits and produce larger and more bountiful fruit. But now, thanks to a company called Light Bio, they’ve been bred to glow.

In February, Light Bio announced the U.S. debut of the Firefly Petunia. During the day, the plant looks like a standard petunia with abundant white blooms. Like most petunias, it can thrive in pots, baskets and in the ground, reaching a size of about 8 to 10 inches. But the show really begins when the sun goes down or the lights go out. In darkness, the leaves and blooms of the Firefly Petunia emit a soft green bioluminescent glow. The light is emitted from within the plant material, and Light Bio claims that the brightness offers a “glow similar to moonlight,” according to marketing materials.

Light Bio CEO Keith Wood says that the luminous leaves and blooms are more than a gimmick. In fact, he is nearly poetic in his portrayal of the plant. “We associate light with vitality,” he suggests. “So, it really speaks to the way we perceive this inner sense of existence.”

Building a bioluminescent bloom

Wood has been working on genetic engineering and plant bioluminescence since the 1980s. But the work was largely lab-based for research purposes rather than consumer-focused. The genetics for creating a glowing plant were isolated as far back as 1986, and Wood and his team made a splash with the first ever glowing plant, but it was more scientific curiosity than anything else. The genetic glow was originally derived from bacterial DNA and was not particularly practical for a consumer-facing product.

So, a commercially viable glowing plant was put on the back burner while Wood continued his work in research applications of bioluminescence. The technology he developed proved incredibly useful for the fields of genetic engineering and synthetic biology.

“Effectively what science is doing is they’re designing circuits in living systems,” Wood explains. “These living circuits are like the circuits that you might find in your home. The difference is, when you flip a switch at home, you get immediate feedback that the circuit is working. But those indications aren’t built into to the circuit a biologist might design in a cell. So how do I know if it’s working or not working? What we did was we created basically a biological LED that we put into the circuit.”

The biotech innovation proved extremely useful for industries like drug manufacturing. It enables companies to test a huge number of compounds in one go. Researchers can create a biological mimic of a disease that includes the bioluminescent circuit. They can then tell which compounds are most effective by seeing which ones trigger a glowing response when combined with a disease mimic.

But for Wood, the dream of breeding a bioluminescent plant that anyone could grow remained persistent. Then, a colleague made a discovery that changed Wood’s trajectory.

“They discovered a new kind of bioluminescence from growing mushrooms,” he remembers. “And the way this new system worked, it’s just so synergistic with the natural biology of plants. I knew that this was going to solve this problem I’ve been trying to solve for almost 40 years. I was so excited about it that I decided to resign my position as head of research and join these guys and lead this new company.”

The bright side of glowing plants

The first benefit of commercially available bioluminescent plants is simply aesthetic. And currently, that is the core of the value proposition, as it was designed to be.

Wood said much of the inspiration for the Firefly Petunia came from James Cameron’s record-grossing sci-fi epic Avatar. The film takes place on the planet of Pandora, with its floating mountains and verdant jungle. But Pandora is most magical at night, when its creatures and (more importantly) its plants glow with vibrant colors.

“People love that movie. And, you know, they didn’t love that movie because of the great storyline, because to be honest, the storyline was pretty average,” Wood says. “What they loved was this fantastic paradise.”

Wood points out the reason the plants in Avatar were made to glow was to give them a sense of vibrant and flourishing life. And that same sense of vibrancy is what Wood says will drive the interest in the Firefly Petunia. He says that there is something magical about having one in a pot in the bedroom and waking up to see its bright glow in the middle of the night.

But Wood notes that the glow’s connection with the plant’s vitality isn’t simply for show. The intensity of the glow will change depending on the health of the plant. If it’s not in optimal conditions or getting the care it needs, it will indicate that by becoming dimmer.

Wood says that he’d like future generations of bioluminescent plants to have this quality bred in more specifically. So, plants might change the color of their glow depending on if they are getting enough water or light or if they are sick.

Beyond health indicators, color is a huge consideration. Light Bio is working on ways to add colors to their spectrum. And the company is also considering new plants to add to its roster.

Currently, Light Bio is selling the illuminated blooms directly to consumers through its website. But the company plans to make the Firefly Petunia available to retailers and IGCs as soon as they have enough plant material.

But the question remains if gardeners and plant enthusiasts will respond to the innovation and begin asking for glowing plants soon. Mark Leichty, director of business development at Little Prince of Oregon Nursery and Garden Center magazine’s Flora Exotica columnist, was cautiously enthusiastic upon learning about the innovation.

“I mean, it raises some concerns,” he says. “But also, I think it’s really cool.”

Leichty says that while organisms like blue-green algae have had bioluminescence for millions of years, he’s impressed with the state of breeding technology that has progressed to the point of creating night-bright plants for consumers. As a plant producer, he’d like to see the innovation move from an annual like petunias to some of his favorite perennials, like hellebores.

But he does have some reservations about what glowing plants might mean for nighttime creatures.

“I think it’s interesting to consider the relationship with certain pollinators,” Leichty says. “For instance, hawk moths love petunias. I would wonder what bioluminescence would do in terms of attracting those pollinators.”

Leichty wonders if a proliferation of night-lighting flowers would change hummingbird behavior, causing them to feed on newly visible flowers at night. He also has concerns about the genetics getting into other plants through sexual reproduction rather than close breeding.

To address some of those concerns, the announcement of the Firefly Petunia only came after the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reviewed the safety of cultivating the petunia. Upon inspection, APHIS acknowledged that the plant was unlikely to pose an increased risk of plant pests compared to other petunias and was therefore safe to grow and breed.

Glowing plants in your IGC?

Wood and Light Bio have every intention of moving beyond direct-to-consumer trade and working with retailers to get plants like the Firefly Petunia into customers’ hands. “We’re relying upon and we’re working with industry leaders to help us shape this kind of future,” he says. “We need to partner with people who know the industries, know the customers and know these various dimensions that we can tap into.”

That said, Wood is convinced that products like the Firefly Petunia will inject some excitement into the garden center retail market. He frames the plant as a kind of technological quantum leap in a world of plant innovation that feels slow and subtle.

“You know, there’s always new cultivars and new flower trends. But to the customer’s mind, they seem largely like incremental variations on a well-established scheme,” Wood argues.

“What we’re doing here is creating an entire new direction to create excitement. And we think that excitement will certainly drive the demand for what we’re doing. This gives a chance for the growers and the retailers to tap into this new excitement and expand their businesses.”

And that may very well turn out to be true. But there will be challenges. How will IGCs adapt? Will they have specific night hours? Will there be “dark houses” that allow consumers to experience them in-store? The future of glowing plants remains to be seen, but it’s certainly brighter now than it ever has been.

Patrick Alan Coleman is editor of Garden Center magazine. Contact him at pcoleman@gie.net.