In the halls of the West Chicago Community High School, a quiet phenomenon occurred this fall: the typical drinking fountain environment had some unexpected greenery thriving in the drain of the sinks.

Students reported that sprouts – which have since died or been cleaned up – emerged from the water fountain drains in the English and athletic hallways.

Although students may not have been exactly thrilled about drinking “plant water,” the germination shows how life can find ways to grow in the strangest situations.

“It’s interesting how plants were found in the school bathrooms. It make me question how they got there and how they kept growing,” junior Sophia Resendez said.

Although plants have been known to grow in strange places: such as the dashboard of a car or in tiled showers, they have not emerged previously in the West Chicago Community High School water fountains. That said, due to the carbon dioxide in the air, plants can grow almost anywhere. A student may have even been washing a vegetable for lunch and the seeds somehow made their way into the drain, and with access to light, water, and moisture in the air, the seed can form into a plant.

“People actually have grown plants that they – like a pea dropped in their lungs, but they’re getting the CO2, little bit of light, and water,” science teacher Corrie Stiegliz said.

Indeed, a 75-year-old, Ron Sveden, found a plant sprouted in his lungs in 2010 due to an inhaled pea. Doctors said the pea most likely went down the wrong pipe, and the moisture allowed it to grow.

According to Stieglitz, students in Honors Biology were growing radishes towards the start of the year: it is possible a mischevious student may have the idea to put the radish seeds into the fountains.

Stieglitz verified the theory is not out of possibility.

“If you have seeds and drop them in water (in the sink) there’s carbon dioxide in the air, light, you are gonna grow,” Stieglitz said.