The Neverending Story

Sometimes I want to make you laugh, but today I feel… let’s say more philosophical. Like: what is life and why does it insist on surviving despite all obstacles? Not that I can give you any answers, but I’m fascinated by a little experiment that’s dragging on. Yet it all started so simply.

Terrarium in a Jar

One day, my son Mathieu, who was 10 at the time, told me that he had started a terrarium in a large jar (the kind used to sell olives) and had sealed it tightly with the original lid. His goal? To find out how long plants could survive without air.

Of course, Mathieu hadn’t asked for my opinion. He showed me his finished terrarium, populated with a selection of cuttings he had taken from my collection of houseplants. One of his choices left something to be desired: a small, spiny Mammillaria! As we all know, cacti hate humidity! But I didn’t say anything: it was his experiment and I thought he would soon have his answers.

Appropriate Choices

The other choices were more appropriate: an oxalis (perhaps a little large, but at least the plant likes humidity) and a tiny sinningia (Sinningia pusilla, a close relative of the African violet, with small pale purple trumpets). The latter is the ultimate miniature plant, as it only reaches the size of a quarter when fully grown, while flowering profusely.

However, I was wrong about the cactus. Not only did it not die immediately, but it grew!

However, it produced long, thin stems with almost no spines, whereas the original plant produced a colony of small “balls” covered with white spines. It was as if the plant had reverted to an ancestral, early form that was more tolerant of the high humidity that prevails in a terrarium.

The oxalis grew the fastest, filling almost the entire terrarium with its leaves and becoming the dominant plant. Soon, the little sinningia, with its mini rosette stuck to the ground, was completely overgrown, and I thought it had died due to lack of light.

Mosses of All Kinds

Clearly, however, my son had introduced more than three plants, because quite quickly, mosses of all kinds appeared, along with algae, liverworts, and various other slimy mats that I would not dare to describe. Clearly, since he hadn’t put them there intentionally, these little plants were already present in the form of spores, on the plants, in the air, or in the theoretically sterilized soil. These plants proliferated, even growing on the walls of the jar, and soon the other plants were almost hidden behind a curtain of greenery. Even the soil disappeared from view because, as it was exposed to light through the constantly damp glass wall, algae quickly covered it.

Even though the jar remained sealed, with no new air or water added, the plants continued to grow. My son had placed it under my fluorescent lights in the basement, which operate year-round, 14 hours a day. Since the lid was opaque, the light was necessarily dim, coming more from the sides of the jar than from the top, but it was not completely dark.

After about two years, rot finally got the better of the little cactus, and then the oxalis too, both drowned in a sea of moss, which eventually formed a thick carpet several centimeters deep. However, the little sinningia, which I thought was dead, reappeared. It managed to reseed itself on the surface of the moss carpet, and there is now a colony of several hundred individuals, still with several flowers, 365 days a year.

The Experience Continues

The most incredible thing is that the experiment is still going on, 12 years later. My son is now 22 and has completely forgotten about his project, I think. I also forget about it most of the time, but every now and then, I notice the little terrarium, pushed all the way to the back of my lamp shelf, and I take it out to look at it. Sometimes I even think about removing the dust that covers it, which is the only maintenance I give it.

Is it beautiful? Not at all! The ground is covered with various layers of algae and slimy bacteria. The glass walls are partially covered with algae and moss. A major clean-up would be needed to show off the colony of small sinningias… but the project protocol stipulates that the jar can never be opened, not even for cleaning.

The Cycle of Life Continues

However, the cycle of life continues: the air is recycled by the plants themselves, water droplets form every night on the walls and fall back to the ground the next day. Plants grow and die, grow and die…

I intend to continue the experiment for as long as possible.

Perhaps when I die, my son will remember his project and keep it for his children and grandchildren?

Even if the jar ends up in the trash, thrown away by someone who has no idea of its importance, it has already demonstrated the incredible ability of life to survive anything!

If you think indoor plants are complicated, now you know what to do! Seal a few plants in a terrarium and let them grow: there’s nothing easier in the world!

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Larry Hodgson has published thousands of articles and 65 books during his career, in both French and English. His son, Mathieu, has made it his mission to make his father’s writings accessible to the public. This text was originally published in Fleurs, plantes, jardins in October 2001.