Powerplant

I have recently bought a houseplant for each of the work stations in my business office. 

Those I work with did view this with a bit of suspicion at first. A few anxious glances were passed across the room as though I was imposing a sort of test as in "keep the plant alive and you'll keep your job" but of course that is wrong in so many ways in terms of employment law and common decency. 

To date only one of the plants has died which is quite surprising as the rental agreement for our 800 square foot space is all inclusive where heat and light is concerned and as a consequence the room can be very stiflingly overheated. Often as not a window has to be cracked open which can be problematic in that we are on a major river estuary and the prevailing winds can be quite storm force leading to rapid cooling. 

I think that the demised fern like species was already a bit poorly anyway. The rest of the potted greenery is thriving and indeed on some of the desks the new shoots and colourful leaves are prolifically abundant. 

My own plant did have an outbreak of leaf fungus but after a bit of a chat and foliage massage on the rare occasion of my attendance in the office it has recovered with a healthy sheen on all of its growths. 

This situation of a peaceful and harmonic co-existence has done a lot to cure my deep rooted fear of vegetation as in my childhood and formative years I was terrorised by the natural world. 

Let me explain. 

In my first decade of my life the family home was at the end of a cul de sac on a housing estate and with open fields on two sides. The sight of the glaring eyes of a fox when caught by the house lights as it came into the garden was frightening and menacing. 

In my teens the next house move was to another residential estate backing onto agricultural land and with a huge Elm tree nestled in the rear boundary onto the farmer's headland. My bedroom was at the back of the house and even in the lightest of wind conditions the sites and sounds of the canopy in full leaf cover was terrifying, especially in the depths of a dark night when I would often be awoken by creaking and groaning of the boughs. 

The onset of the Dutch Elm Disease brought on a new and even more scary element in that the dying branches would just fall off in a noisy heap in the garden. 

The risk to us children meant that the tree had to be progressively cut back and was eventually just a fungus supporting stump of a trunk. 

So the new found synergy with my desk top plant has helped me to process those bad experiences from my past. 

Things now seem to be going full circle as I have just been reading about a new botanical study that shows that the low levels of energy produced by plants could be harnessed for a range of uses. 

It appears that plants naturally deposit bio-matter as a waste product as they grow which in turn feeds the natural bacteria in the soil creating energy. 

Here is a bit more of the science about that. 

In sunlight and also conditions of shade plants produce sugars and oxygen from water and carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. 

The sugars are transported through to the stem and roots.

Some of this is excreted into the soil. 

The micro-organisms in the soil break this down further releasing energy. 

If this can then be collected in fuel cells then it could be used as a source of power. Most man made power sources such as batteries and solar panels have limitations so that they cannot be relied upon for sustained power for example in remote or inhospitable environments. 

A single fuel cell can generate 0.1 milliwatts of power. and if a series of such cells are connected up then the delivery of energy can be more manageable and effective. 

As a practical demonstration of the possibilities of plant power a four year study at the Zoological Society of London culminated in a Maidenhair Fern by the name of Pete producing enough energy to take a Selfie Photograph every 20 seconds. 

That does sound like a long and arduous study but the results have excited the world of plant science about further practical applications. 

I will just have to keep friends with my one desktop plant and perhaps one day it could be running all of the powered systems in the office.... and beyond.