Could glow in the dark plants be used as street lights?

These plants glow in the dark!

Imagine walking down the street and instead of streetlamps to light the way, its the trees that light up!

It might sound like something out of a movie, but a team of scientists in China have actually been creating plants that glow-in-the-dark.

The researchers managed to create glow-in-the-dark succulent plants that recharge in sunlight - a bit like the glow-in-the-dark stars you can put on your ceiling.

They were also able to make them glow in different colours like red, green, yellow and blue.

Glow in the dark greenery is not totally new.

Whilst plants on land are not naturally bioluminescent, past scientific studies have created glowing plants using genetic engineering.

However the glow is often very faint and only available in green, as well as being quite complicated and expensive to make.

How did scientists make plants glow-in-the-dark?

For the new study, scientists injected phosphor particles into a variety of plants including succulents, Golden Pothos and bok choy.

Phosphor particles are a chemical substance that absorbs light, and releases it slowly over time - like glow-in-the-dark toys.

They discovered that only the succulents gave off a strong glow, due to them having lots of narrow channels within the leaves, which allowed the mixture to spread evenly.

After being charged up in front of an LED light bulb, or the Sun for a couple of minutes, the modified plants were able to glow for up to two hours.

The glow from the plants was bright enough for the scientists to see objects in the dark

The researchers were also able to create a glowing plant wall made up of 56 succulents, which was bright enough to light up nearby objects and read a book.

The scientists say this new method is a lot quicker and cheaper than other methods of creating glowing plants.

However, the glow doesn't last for very long, and fades over time.

The team are now looking into the long-term safety of the plants, and whether or not the phosphor injections would make the plants toxic if eaten, as well as researching if the process could work in other plants.

So, a glowing street of plants might not be too far away!