If you were to create a plant from scratch, could you come up with something as creative as a caramel flower that produces chocolate-covered caramel balls in 28 days? One that originated in Hawaii but has been transplanted to Paris, where chefs use it to make delicious desserts and pastries?
How about an aquatic plant that gets food through photosynthesis and chemosynthesis? It also absorbs oceanic chemical pollution and releases cleansed particles that feed plankton.
Or a medical cactus with a goopy, runny substance inside that lowers human cholesterol, eases inflammation and protects us from oxidative stress?
As part of the 2007-08 Fairchild Challenge, 4,424 middle school students invented plants and wrote essays. From that abundance, 30 schools selected their best, submitting 84 drawings and ''Design a Plant'' essays for judging Thursday. Winners will receive certificates and points for their schools toward the bigger annual Challenge prizes.
The Fairchild Challenge, now in its sixth year, is an environmental outreach program that offers middle and high school students chances to participate in an array of competitions that revolve around science and the environment. Challenge events occur throughout the year and have included poetry performances, designing T-shirts, recycling programs and debates. The schools that accumulate the most points from top performances receive modest cash prizes for environmental programs.
Nan Wolcott, former interim provost of New World School of the Arts and chair of the Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council, has served as a Challenge judge for four years.
The plant essays are ''full of exuberance'' and ''so spirited,'' she says. ``We look for students to be genuinely creative but also they need to understand what a plant is.''
She and the other judges may be awestruck at what they find.
Veronica Davila of Aventura City of Excellence School invented the caramel flowers. Tahimi Perez-Burroto of Archimedean Middle Conservatory dreamed up the ocean-dwelling Aqua Marine plant, and Stephanie Reyes from Jose Marti Middle conjured the Medical Cactus to which she gave the botanical name Medicus aculeata (''aculeata'' means ``with prickles'').
Rosa Acosta Sampson's mother and grandmother also are named Rosa, and her mother grows orchids, so Sampson, 12, combined the rose and the orchid to create the Orchirose, with a center of burgundy and pink and petals that change from light pink to the whitest white. ''This new hybrid is made to survive any environment (except temperatures below 34 degrees Fahrenheit or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit),'' she wrote.
LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Acosta Sampson, in the seventh grade, wrote her essay in the Richmond Heights Middle School literary arts class, which participated in the Challenge event. She liked drawing the plant best but, she said, ``I still liked writing because I learned about plants, and science is one of my favorite subjects.''
Other imaginative entries include a cactus that grows leaves to shade itself; a fruit tree that combines flavors of strawberry, blueberry, boysenberry, raspberry, cranberry and blackberry; a fern able to survive in the Sahara Desert.
The sixth, seventh and eighth graders had to make up a scientific name and describe the plant's habitat, tell how it acquires food and defends itself. They were told to describe special adaptations and tell how the plant reproduces. They also were to include a drawing.
Annie Dheng, 12, from Youth Co-op Charter school, invented the Locking Feather Lilies, Lilium Penna defendo. Its petals, like feathers, attract birds that eat the berries the plant produces. The birds then spread the seeds through their droppings.
''If anything harmful approaches, [the flower] quickly locks itself. The sepals are smooth, which makes it harder for the predator to bite,'' Dheng describes. 'When the predator is away, the `cage' opens up to let the sun shine in.''
Dheng, who lives in Hialeah, is in the gifted class at Youth Co-op, where teacher Carolina Hernandez says, ''I thought this was a great way to bring together language art skills and art plus science.'' Before designing her lilies, Dheng said she ''knew the simple basic stuff about plants, like they need water and to eat food.'' Her only experience growing a plant was in the second grade, when she grew a kidney bean for class.
At Kinloch Park Middle School, where the entire school participated in the Design a Plant contest, Griselda Torres created Detritus transformis, or Garbage Miracle plant. While she grows a few houseplants, Torres, 15, said the inspiration for her plant came from the fact that her family -- two sisters, a little brother and her parents -- fill a full bag of garbage every day. ''I thought there's just so much garbage,'' Torres said.
Torres' plant obtains nutrients from garbage because it grows in dumps and landfills. It also neutralizes the smell and cleans the air, reducing pollution and slowing global warming.
Alan Aquayo, also of Kinloch Park, came up with a transformer plant after seeing a Transformer movie. Aquayo's Verto aquila, the eagle transformer, comes in four he-man versions in addition to the eagle, called Eabot. There's Berot, a bear transformer; Leot, lion; Planot, a plant, and Humbot, human. His plants transform into animals as a defense mechanism ''in just under three seconds.'' The plants also have leaves that serve as solar panels to acquire energy when food is scarce.
Carol Peckins, media specialist for Kinloch, has been coach and cheerleader for the school's participation in the Fairchild Challenge. Kinloch has been the top-scoring middle school two years in a row, and the outdoor tables and benches near the school's butterfly garden were purchased with their award money.
Aquayo, 13, and in the eighth grade, researched carnivorous plants, said he ''got interested in plants eating animals'' and created his transformer plant. He wants a career in the arts, he said. ''I draw a lot. I started drawing when I was 3,'' he said. ``My mom got me a composition notebook. I guess she wanted me to write, but I started drawing instead.''
KILLER DESIGNS
A fair number of the made-up plants turned out to be carnivorous. The Duo-carnivoro-photo lilopado adjusts to different water levels in the Everglades in addition to being carnivorous (by Kea Schwarz, Glades Middle), while the Saracina muricater, or Mice Chomper, tricks mice into falling into a pitcher of digestive fluids by disguising the fluids as seeds and kernels (from Karen Burgos, Glades Middle).
Matthew Elmore, who attends Devon Aire K-8 Center, imagined a worm-buster tomato, whose petals close and eat pests. ``Watch out hornworms! Be afraid fruit worms! Sayonara slugs!''
The Everglades Bee Exterminator comes with a story written by Matthew Zabielinski of Devon Aire. The story is this: It was discovered by Charles J. Warner, who walked 18 miles into the Everglades while hunting. The carnivorous plant lives on mosquitoes, bees, grasshoppers, beetles and flies. The plant has appeared on Oprah, Nightline, 60 Minutes and 20/20. Warner was not so lucky. He died on Jan. 19, 2006, ``shortly after his scientific find by touching the plant's stem without wearing gloves.''
