Humans seem to be obsessed with things that float, like hoverboards, UFOs and levitating Bluetooth speakers. A Kickstarter project wants to extend that love for the defiance of gravity to plant life. Air Bonsai uses the power of magnetic levitation to float small trees grown and groomed through the Japanese art of bonsai.

Air Bonsai uses the same principle we’ve seen before in a floating chessboard and a UFO-inspired levitating speaker. Repelling magnets push away from each other, allowing the plant container to float above the base. The creators refer to the floating plants as “little stars.”

The effect is magical. The tiny trees float gently and spin slowly like imaginative creations from an anime. Some of them look like dainty planets with cratered surfaces. Small pines are what most people are familiar with when it comes to bonsai, but Air Bonsai can also be used to grow other flora like mosses and flowering plants.

Shipping live plants can be a challenge. Air Bonsai plans to use locally sourced plants for backers in the United States. Backers in most other countries will have to provide their own bonsai.

There seems to be a lot of interest in magnetic gardening. The project blew away its original US$80,000 funding goal and has attracted over US$185,000 in funding so far with one month left to run.

A basic Air Bonsai set that includes the growing container, “energy base,” a cushion, a box and an AC adapter starts at a US$200 pledge price. Keep in mind that not all crowdfunding projects deliver on time or as expected.

It’s easy to see why these charming trees are attracting so much Kickstarter attention. We may not all have hoverboards yet, but at least we can have hoverplants.

从悬浮滑板、飞碟，到悬浮音箱，人们往往对浮在空中的东西很是着迷。这股“悬浮风”甚至吹到了植物界：Kickstarter网上就有个名为空中盆栽的众筹项目。这种源于日本的盆栽艺术利用了磁悬浮原理，能让植物浮在空中。

与此前问世的悬浮棋盘和仿飞碟造型的悬浮音箱一样，空中盆栽利用的也是磁极同性相斥的原理。如此一来，盆栽便稳稳地浮在基座之上了。发明团队给这种盆栽取了个名字，叫“小星星”。

空中盆栽看上去颇为神奇。迷你植物在空中慢慢地旋转，好似动画片中的虚拟场景。有些盆栽甚至像缀满了陨石坑的微型星球。常见的盆栽几乎是清一色的小松树，但空中盆栽的植株中也有苔藓或花卉。

不过，由于盆栽是生长中的植物，运输便成了大问题。发明团队会为身在美国的众筹赞助者们提供当地采购的植株，其他国家的则需自行准备。

人们似乎对空中盆栽兴趣很大。该项目最初的众筹目标是8万美元（约合52万元人民币），截至目前却已收获18.5万美元（约合121万元人民币）。要知道，离众筹结束还有整整一个月。

只要你在Kickstarter网的该项目上出资200美元，便可在日后得到基本款空中盆栽礼盒，其中包括种植盆、“能量基座”、垫子、盆栽盒，以及电源适配器。当然，众筹的项目鱼龙混杂，产品未必能如期交付也未必符合预期。

话说回来，空中盆栽小巧别致，无怪乎吸引了众多赞助者的眼球。或许我们现在还无法拥有悬浮滑板，那么至少我们可以买个空中盆栽来把玩一番。

    Words to Learn 相关词汇

   【磁悬浮】cíxuánfú magnetic levitation a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields

    【多坑的】duōkēng de cratered full of bowl-shaped depressions in a surface