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This question How often must carnivorous grassland eat?

was really interesting for me to read. However it made me wonder, how would the bone grass scientifically kill? (is there a way to really make paralytic pollen?)

Here are the criteria:

  • as long as it looks like white grass it counts(you could have snakes hidden in the ground or something)

  • it must kill via paralyzing its prey

  • the more efficient it is at "hunting" the better

  • solution must be scientifically plausible

  • no need to explain the reasons it would evolve, I don't believe in that. Makes creature design easier. :)

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them.

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  • $\begingroup$ Wasn't this already discussed in the first bonegrass question? Fungus, etc. was detailed. $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 6:33
  • $\begingroup$ I feel this question was already answered, in a round-about way, in the original post. $\endgroup$
    – Polyducks
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 10:26
  • $\begingroup$ I feel like those questions weren't concentrated on the actual design. They were more about food frequency. Basically everyone answered with "it depends on how efficient you can make it". So here I want to see just how efficient you CAN make it. $\endgroup$
    – Aarthew III
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 14:06

2 Answers 2

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There certainly are toxins that will put people to sleep, paralyze them, etc. Spider Wasps for example paralyze their prey and then inject eggs into them.

One interesting idea though would be for the grass to take carbon dioxide out of the air and store it in inflatable bladders around the plant or maybe in its roots. When a trigger happens such as a herd of grazing animals getting into the center of the field they all release the CO2 at once. Being heavier than air it forms a pool and suffocates all life in the field silently and invisibly. The field would then be fertilized by the bodies but safe to enter for a few months while they rebuilt their CO2 reserves.

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In order to get a plan that look like white grass you could put the toxin in the leaves, much like the stinging hairs of nettles.

You could also combinable the poison with the substance used to digest the prey, for example: a sticky substance covering the plant. When someone step on the plant, the poison paralyse him while the leaves stick on him start to slowly dissolve the flesh. The plant keep produce poison while the prey is on the ground so it can't escape.

In order to attract animal, the paralysing substance could produce a sweet aroma. In order to attract human, the plant could adopt a pretty design or mimic a inoffensive or useful plant.

For the poison efficiency, the plant use theirs poison to deter animals from eating them but not to kill instantly a prey. Consequently, their effect are often delayed in time. But the Dendrocnide moroides is a stinging plant renowned for causing unbearable pain. The pain is so intense that there are report of horses jumping off cliffs after being stung and a man who commit suicide in order to stop the pain. So a more effective version of this toxin could nail to the ground due to the pain until slower toxin completely paralyse the prey.

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