Self-contained worlds under glass. Enter any word to grow a unique ecosystem.
The terrarium was invented by accident. In 1842, English botanist Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward was observing a sphinx moth chrysalis in a sealed glass jar when he noticed a fern and grass had sprouted from the soil. They survived for years without watering.
Ward realized the sealed environment created a self-sustaining water cycle: plants transpired moisture, which condensed on the glass and returned to the soil. His "Wardian cases" revolutionized the transport of plants across oceans, enabling the spread of tea from China to India, rubber from Brazil to Malaysia, and orchids from everywhere to Victorian parlors.
A closed terrarium is a miniature Earth:
Each word you enter grows a unique ecosystem: container, substrate, biome, plants, creatures, weather patterns, and observations. The same word produces the same terrarium each day, but tomorrow the ecosystem will have evolved.
The keeper's observations change with the time of day. Visit in the morning and see dawn light touch the glass. Return at night and find everything dreaming in darkness.