A plant that can withstand cold, drought and radiation, which could thrive even in arid and lifeless territory such as the soil of the planet Mars. A study conducted by a group of Chinese researchers on the desert moss Syntrichia caninervis, has highlighted its potential as a pioneer plant with which to lay the foundations for building biologically sustainable human habitats outside of Earth. The results of laboratory tests were published in the scientific journal “The Innovation” and, as reiterated by botanist Tingyun Kuang and ecologists Daoyuan Zhang and Yuanming Zhang, this particular moss has proven to be super resistant: “Our study shows that the environmental resilience of S. caninervis is superior to that of highly stress-tolerant microorganisms and tardigrades”.
The Plant That Could Grow on Mars
The choice to focus on the moss Syntrichia caninervis is obviously not a coincidence. It is in fact an organism with extraordinary capacities, which grows in desert environments or in particularly extreme areas such as Tibet or Antarctica. The researchers decided to test the resistance of the moss in various aspects. As for temperature, the scientists tested its tolerance to cold, keeping the plants at 80 degrees below zero for three and five years, and at 196 degrees below zero for 15 and 30 days. After thawing, all the plants regenerated, with a faster recovery for those that had been dehydrated before freezing. The experts then tested its resistance to radiation, with Syntrichia caninervis proving capable of resisting a quantity of gamma rays lethal for any other type of plant. And not only that, doses equal to 500 gray (the unit of measurement of the absorbed dose of radiation in the international system) even seem to promote its growth. Just think that “only” 50 gray can cause violent convulsions in humans, and even death: “Our results indicate – the researchers underlined – that S. caninervis is among the most radiation-tolerant organisms known”.
Finally, the scientists then tried to reproduce the conditions present on Mars with a planetary atmosphere simulator. The system made it possible to recreate a thin atmosphere composed of 95% carbon dioxide, with temperatures ranging from -60°C to 20°C and high levels of ultraviolet rays. The results were surprising: the dehydrated moss plants, kept in these Martian conditions for one, two, three and seven days, showed a 100% regeneration within a month. On the other hand, the non-dehydrated specimens, kept for one day in the simulator, managed to survive, but their recovery was slower. Of course, we are still far from planting edible vegetables on the Red Planet, but the key to growing on extraterrestrial soils could be hidden in the formidable resistance of Syntrichia caninervis.