Tattooed leaves: how it works
28.5.2026
Translation: machine translated
Pictures: Darina Schweizer
A seed sprouts - and suddenly the first leaf carries a message. What sounds like a small miracle is actually simple and quickly explained.
Whoever wants to give me a plant is a poor bastard. I'm extremely picky when it comes to greenery. A succulent plant? Great idea, but only with bluish leaves, please. After three years as a plant editor, my taste has taken on absurd excesses. No wonder almost nobody gives me plants anymore.
One exception is my mum. She recently brought me minted beans. The idea is cute: you plant a seed with a motif and, as if by magic, lettering or a picture appears on the first leaf. To cut a long story short: it worked. But how? With magic?
On the trail of the engraving
Not quite. Barely a week after I put the seeds in the soil, I see through the phenomenon. A first sprout appears on the surface and peels out of the seed coat.
At this point you can clearly see: The motif has been transferred to the sprout through the seed coat during engraving. Almost like we used to copy writing from one sheet to another with carbon paper. How old am I already?!
Certainly older than my little plant. The next day, the pot is already empty. Jasper the cat has bitten off the sprout and shredded it under the garden table. I should have guessed, I think, and put the plant out of his sight.
The bean becomes a bean
Luckily, a second sprout grows. Its engraving, a flower, is still clearly visible when the first leaves emerge from the sprout. Just under a week later, it becomes smaller and shrivelled - and finally falls off completely. No more of the five seeds sprouted. What a pity.
At least I now have a ... well, what actually? So far, I haven't been the least bit interested in which plant is growing there. So I look at the packet of seed beans. Oh what, a bean! Captain Obvious has struck.
Will this still be something?
All well and good. But what do I do with the bean now? There's nothing on the packet. I read in the Internet that I should put them in the sun and let the vegetable soil on a regular basis. If it's a stalk bean, I should water it as soon as possible.I should install a climbing aid as soon as possible. Well, let's wait and see. The plant doesn't really want to grow yet.
And apart from that: Somehow beans are a bit too green for me. If only they were a stronger shade of blue. Maybe Blauhilde, the Bohnenstange runner bean, will move in with me after all.
Do you have any tips on how to make my beans grow better? Then let me know in the comments!
Darina Schweizer
Senior Editor
Darina.Schweizer@digitecgalaxus.chI love everything with four legs or roots – especially my rescue cats Jasper and Joy and my collection of succulents. I’m happiest following the scent of stories about police dogs and cat groomers – or cultivating thoughtful tales in garden flea markets and Japanese gardens.
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