Paul Stamets, a mycologist, has invented ‘The Life Box’, a cardboard packaging box infused with a mixture of spores and seeds that can be planted to grow into trees. Just tear the box, plant it in the soil and water it normally to see the plants flourishing from it.
Life Box’s site explains how it works:
The Life Box suite of products builds upon the synergy of fungi and plants by infusing spores and seeds together inside of packaging materials that can be planted. The Tree Life Box is made of recycled paper fiber. In this fiber, we have inserted a wide variety of tree seeds, up to a hundred, dusted with mycorrhizal fungal spores. The mycorrhizal fungi protect and nurture the young seedlings. The fungi “sprout” or germinate to form an attachment with root cells and extend into the soil with a network of fine cobweb of cells called mycelium. The mycelium mothers the seed nursery by providing nutrients and water, thus protecting the growing trees from disease, drought, and famine.
Life Box has several uses as packaging material such as DVD/CD mailers and Pizza boxes.
Here is Paul Stamets talking about his invention:
[via Good]
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