Firefly Petunia

Franken-Flower

Firefly Petunia

What would happen if you bioengineered an ordinary Petunia plant to incorporate genetic material from a bioluminscent fungi? You might end up with something that H.P. Lovecraft described in his short story.

“The night had been dark and the buggy-lamps faint, but around a farm in the valley which everyone knew from the account must be Nahum’s the darkness had been less thick. A dim though distinct luminosity seemed to inhere in all the vegetation, grass, leaves, and blossoms alike, while at one moment a detached piece of the phosphorescence appeared to stir furtively in the yard near the barn.”

– H.P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space

When I learned that this existed I knew that this was plant for me. At first in a darkened room, I saw nothing but as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I saw a faint greenish Lovecraftian glow in the leaves and stems.

Stems of the Firefly Petunia

My Nightlight

Last night I placed the plant next to the bed and slipped into slumber gazing at its eerie glow, dreaming of the Deep Ones of Innsmouth.