Can Carbon Monoxide Affect Cut Flowers?

Plant Respiration

• Plants take in the carbon dioxide we exhale and producing oxygen for us. However, plants breath oxygen just as all other organisms do. Plants do take in carbon dioxide, but it is not a part of their respiration process, but rather part of the photosynthesis process. When flowers are cut from a plant, they no longer photosynthesize, but respiration still occurs, so that the flowers take in oxygen and, if it is present, carbon monoxide as well.

Carbon Monoxide

• Carbon monoxide is toxic to humans and animals. It affects breathing organisms by interfering with the hemoglobin, which transports oxygen to the body's cells. Humans and animals are affected by carbon monoxide through inhalation only. It is especially dangerous because it cannot be detected by sight, smell or any other sensation. Although plants and cut flowers have a respiration process just as humans and animals do, carbon monoxide does not affect them in the same way.

Carbon Monoxide and Plants

• Carbon monoxide has no effect, visible or invisible, on plants. Plants are capable of both producing and metabolizing carbon monoxide. Through metabolizing carbon monoxide, plants create oxygen, so breathe carbon monoxide as we can oxygen.

Cut Flowers and Respiration

• When a flower is cut from a plant, much of the flower's metabolic process disappears. It no longer photosynthesizes, so it no longer draws carbon dioxide from the air. The flower still draws oxygen and carbon monoxide and reacts just as it would were it still attached to a plant. The carbon monoxide does not affect the plant.