Overview

• The study, published in Matter, reports that injecting strontium aluminate microparticles into living plants produced visible light after exposure to ambient light.
• After a brief charge, the modified succulents reached roughly candle-level peak brightness and continued glowing for about two hours.
• Researchers optimized particle size to around 7 micrometers so the phosphors could traverse leaf channels, yielding uniform glow in Echeveria 'Mebina'.
• Different phosphors produced green, red, blue and orange variants, and a 56‑plant living wall was bright enough to illuminate nearby objects and readable text.
• Each plant took about 10 minutes to prepare at a little over 10 yuan (about $1.4), though experts warn that longer-duration luminance and the environmental fate of the synthetic microparticles remain open questions.