For two years, we let our plants endure a variety of stressful conditions up in the high north: snow, cold, competition, nutrient limitations, they all got to deal with it in various amounts.

We monitored them all along the way, to see how well they could cope with it. Some couldn’t, lots of them died, not strong enough to deal with the stress. Some survived, a few of them even managed to grow, and only the lucky few won the game of life: they produced seeds, the one and only goal of a plant.

But producing seeds is one thing – and it definitely makes you look the hero of the plant world. Yet these seeds still need to succeed on their own, otherwise their parental care was not enough.

That is what we are testing now: to find the winners among the winners. Those plants who – among all the stress that comes with living in the Arctic – took the best care of their offspring.

I will of course inform you about the winners!