Vegetable expedition | A mysterious ephemeral greenhouse at the Botanical Garden

A flying greenhouse, propelled by the electrical energy provided by its plants, mysteriously landed in the heart of the Botanical Garden overnight from Sunday to Monday. Fantasy or reality?

Mary Tison
The Press

“It was not easy,” said the head of the Aérofloral II mission, the FD commander, during a press conference Monday morning. “The weather conditions were not to our advantage, and a depression caused by the high temperatures of the day disrupted our approach by creating violent turbulence. »

The crew still managed to maneuver and land in a clearing near the Japanese Garden.

“Unfortunately, we landed hard and ran over a squirrel. We are sorry, I know they are rare here. »

This version of events can be questioned. You can also play the game. This is what the director of the Botanical Garden, Anne Charpentier, suggested, welcoming this contribution of magic and fantasy.

What is real is the towering, multi-story structure, perched on four spidery legs, laden with plants and fans, topped with large balloons. Crew members climb up and down using a ladder and ropes.

All around, they have placed a large number of machines with the most diverse purposes: one is used to caress the plants, another to talk to them and listen to them, yet another is used to make the apples blush.

The crew members are happy to explain, in the most serious way, the why and how of these experiences. They can invite visitors to participate.

This is how 6-year-old Jean reads a passage from the classic children’s book The Return of the Black Stallion in a kind of funnel which distributes the sound, through large pipes, to half a dozen small vegetable gardens on wheels. A crew member conscientiously measures the energy circulating in one of the plants to write it down in a large notebook.

plant energy

The underlying theme of the entire Aérofloral II mission (entitled Plant Expedition) is phytovoltaic energy, the energy provided by plants. The healthier a plant is (we talk to it, caress it, play music to it), the more energy it will be able to provide.

This is also the reason for the presence of Aérofloral II in Canada, according to Commander FD (he prefers to remain anonymous to, he says, protect himself from powerful oil lobbies). There are things to discover.

“Here, the plants have the capacity to develop very quickly because they have a very long winter. As these plants manage to complete their cycle in a very short way, they have a great energy capacity. »

The goal of all this research is that one day it will be possible to plug your electric bike directly into a maple tree to be able to recharge it, continues Commander FD, who draws a sketch in his notebook to make it clear how it works. phytovoltaism.

The Aérofloral II crew will be present from July 18 to 31 at the Botanical Garden. However, he will take a break on July 20, 21, 26 and 27.

A team of animators from the Botanical Garden will then take over. “They will talk about the same themes, but in a more… verified way, a little less whimsical,” says M^me Carpenter.

According to the version of the FD commander, the Aérofloral II has already circumnavigated the world three times and comes directly from Greenland, where the crew studied seeds buried in the permafrost. However, the labels sewn on the sleeves of the crew members mention the home port of the flying greenhouse, La Machine, in Nantes. But one can choose to stick to the FD commander’s version.