The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps. In the future, the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant's lifetime.

The century plant blooms only once in its lifetime.

Environmentalists reckon that using the ethanol produced over the lifetime of such a plant would cut carbon emissions by 75% compared with burning the equivalent amount of petrol.