Welcome Erin!
With you on board I think we have just as many 'plant experts' as 'tech experts' (as it should be).
There are plants which will survive a range of conditions but can
still be relatively sensitive or communicative about their needs. I am
thinking mostly of flowering plants that only bloom when they've got
everything they need (e.g. african violets, geraniums). I also had a
Kentia palm which was very quick to go brown at the tips (from
irregular watering) but kept producing new growth almost no matter
what.
This is good to know. I think we need to talk about the extent to which we should choose plants to fit the lab environment (warm, dry, constant) vs. trying to keep things that 'don't belong' their alive with technical means.
What about plants that are active/communicative in ways other than
signaling distress, such as having the tendency to grow rapidly, or
reproduce (spider plants and piggyback plants both produce little
plantlets as a reproductive strategy). Of course, young seedlings of
many plants will be both communicative about their needs, and likely
to change substantially over a short period of time. Would seedlings
of food plants be of interest for this prototype - perhaps started
from seed?
This is interesting...represents a new challenge for plant sensing.
I also wanted to put out there that there is an artist in Montreal
(Francine Larivee) who has done research on which species of moss do
well indoors, under what conditions of care. She made several indoor
moss gardens and collaborated with a biologist at the botanical garden
to get it right. Moss is pretty sensitive, also interesting in that (I
think) it invites close-up looking, also touching, though I don't know
if that's wanted.
We should get in touch with her. Inspired by Flower, I would love to grow moss 'on the floor' in the lab.
M