Swedish researchers have successfully created an e-rose for the first time. They implanted some circuits in the vascular system of the rose. According to the researchers from the Linkoping University, they have tasted success in developing analog and digital electronics circuits inside plants.

The team of researchers led by Magnus Berggren, a professor at the Linkoping University, used living roses' vascular system to develop components of electronic circuits. A researcher of the team said it is the first time when an electronic circuit has been produced in living plants.

The researchers explained about digital logic, wires and display elements that could be beneficial for organic electronics. Plants usually depend on the transport of ionic signals and hormones to carry out their functions. With electronic functionality of living plants, it is possible to combine electric signals and chemical processes of the plants.

"Controlling and interfacing with chemical pathways in plants could pave the way to photosynthesis-based fuel cells, sensors and growth regulators, and devices that modulate the internal functions of plants", as per the researchers.

Ove Nilsson, director of the Umea Plant Science Centre, said it wasn't possible before to measure concentration of molecules in augmenting plants. The new finding has paved the way to influence various molecules in the living plant, Nilsson added.

First, researchers put a synthetic polymer called PEDOT-S into the flower via its stem. The rose sucks in the substance using its xylem, the vascular system that transports water.

Then, the polymer turns into a “wire” that conducts electric signals, letting water and essential nutrients to move around the flower.

Afterwards, researchers can link the “wires” to the electrolytes inside the flower, thus creating an electrochemical transistor and a digital logic gate, one of the main components of computer systems.

First, they can transmit energy, as “now we can really start talking about 'power plants'—we can place sensors in plants and use the energy formed in the chlorophyll, produce green antennas, or produce new materials,” according to the lead researcher, Berggren.

Also, electronic plants can be able to sense and display environmental changes, so the discovery could be useful in agriculture.

Controlling and interfacing with chemical pathways in plants could pave the way to photosynthesis-based fuel cells, sensors and growth regulators, and devices that modulate the internal functions of plants, researchers said.

"Previously, we had no good tools for measuring the concentration of various molecules in living plants. Now we'll be able to influence the concentration of the various substances in the plant that regulate growth and development," said Ove Nilsson, professor of plant reproduction biology and director of the Umea Plant Science Centre.

The researchers said they tried many times to introduce conductive polymers through the stems of roses. They found that only PEDOT-S polymer succeeded in assembling itself in xylem channels.