Questions tagged [flora]
For questions related to plants and vegetation in general.
5
votes
2answers
114 views
Seasonal Shade-Plant
There is a forest in my world with a special property: All the trees are optimised to shade as much as possible during summer and give as little shadow as possible during winter, to regulate the ...
4
votes
2answers
150 views
Would advanced Plantoids be plausible? [closed]
Could it be plausible that if enough time given and favorable conditions are met, the dominant species of an alien planet could be a species of plant and by dominant I mean achieving sentience and ...
35
votes
10answers
5k views
Anatomically Correct Carnivorous Tree
How might a carnivorous tree look or work?
The following conditions must be met:
Consumes members of the biological kingdom 'Animalia'
Possesses something resembling a trunk or stem of any kind
...
4
votes
2answers
156 views
Could a tree evolve to have vastly varying shades?
I was wondering whether it would be feasible to have a tree that at times may have light green, at other times dark green leaves.
Why would a tree evolve to change the shade of its leaves?
Yes, I am ...
3
votes
4answers
192 views
Could a tree build its bark out of Starlite-like material?
How could trees in an environment with 23% Oxygen (The atmosphere is identical to earth in all other respects.) grow bark with Starlite-like qualities?
Starlite is a material claimed to be able to ...
2
votes
3answers
181 views
Fireproof liquids that are non-toxic to carbon based life?
What sort of fireproof liquid could be used by carbon-based life without causing harm to the organism? Whether it be absorbed from exterior sources or produced in the organism's body. I say organism ...
28
votes
8answers
7k views
Would glacier 'trees' be plausible?
The setting is in a region of a planet comparable to Earth's California in regards to location. The soil is extremely rich in nutrients and subsurface water. But for the past three million years the ...
11
votes
3answers
294 views
Plants accidentally exposed to vacuum of space - Will the settlers save them on time?
A newly-built base on the moon has the first two compartments of a pressurized greenhouse farm. An airlock system automatically seals one compartment off the others when pressure sensors indicate a ...
9
votes
2answers
191 views
Plants That Use Chitin in Place of Lignin
What would the appearance and structure of trees be like if they used chitin, instead of lignin, for cell walls? This is assuming that all other properties are basically unchanged.
These trees would ...
4
votes
3answers
122 views
Modern Landscape Lacking Wood Decomposers
What would a modern landscape look like with the absence of lignin decomposing fungi, bacteria, and etc.
What I mean is...would a forested area just become filled with fallen trees instead of a more ...
8
votes
5answers
132 views
Light spectrum from a red dwarf star on a planet with an ozone and cloudy atmosphere
What light spectrum would hit the surface of a planet orbiting a red dwarf star?
The planet has a humid, greenhouse, & cloudy atmosphere, and a strong ozone, 80%+ surface water.
Planet is ...
26
votes
5answers
4k views
Plausibility of Mushroom Buildings
How plausible would buildings made inside of, or made using, giant mushrooms be?
Copyright Raphael Lacoste 2018
A staple of the fantasy genre, mushrooms have commonly been seen as magical and ...
9
votes
4answers
510 views
What Would the Third Kind of Angiosperm Look Like?
To put this title into context, there are actually two basic kinds of angiosperms on Earth, showing here:
These differences in characteristics serve their own adaptations to survive and thrive.
Now ...
5
votes
3answers
604 views
Would plants on a planet orbiting a star like ours, have any different color?
So I'm currently designing an alien habitable planet that orbits a star similar to our Sun. Assuming that the composition of the planet's atmosphere, as well as its pressure, are similar to the ones ...
0
votes
0answers
58 views
How long would it take a town to become overgrown? [duplicate]
So in my imaginary world, in the mid-to-late 2000s a lot of people die off. The reasons for this are unimportant, so I won't include them, but it has no impact on plant and animal life. So, ...
6
votes
1answer
138 views
What tree type grows into the most dense forests?
"Tree" is (apparently) not a very well defined term as far as scientific classifications are concerned, so I'll put my own restrictions on it for this question:
Typical healthy adult specimens must ...
8
votes
2answers
813 views
Could Gymnosperms Develop Fruits and Flowers Like Angiosperms?
Here is the scenario: A Paleo/Mesozoic mass extinction wiped out 96% of all terrestrial species, and the only plants that survived were as follows:
One genus of conifer
One genus of cycad
One genus ...
4
votes
2answers
151 views
Could fruit (specifically oranges) evolve into intelligent life? [closed]
Is it possible for oranges to become intelligent life while still retaining some of their essential qualities such as skin that can neatly be peeled off and reproduction through seeds and growth off ...
12
votes
3answers
324 views
Symbiotic Assassin Vines
I have an idea for an encounter in my world that goes like this...
A weary group of adventurers are trekking through a great ancient forest. This forest is avoided by most due to strange tales of ...
6
votes
6answers
2k views
What could cause trees to grow large, hollow bulges about halfway up their trunks?
I'd like to have a forest with trees that are "normal" except that as they grow a big, hollow bulge forms in their trunks about halfway up, giving them a shape something like this, with a relatively ...
6
votes
3answers
206 views
How would a world evolve with regular blizzards? [closed]
Imagine there are severe magical blizzards coming from the south pole at regular intervals.
Since they're magical, let's assume they can cross the equator and don't lose strength over time.
They are ...
1
vote
0answers
51 views
What would plant life on 55 Cancri e be like? [closed]
55 Cancri e is an actual exoplanet which should be around twice the size of Earth so it would be high gravity. It also is thought to be a carbon planet, meaning the role silicate takes on our world ...
7
votes
3answers
221 views
Can black algae promote a global warming on a cold planet?
My world is at the outer edge of the habitable zone. There is enough heat and geological activity to start life, but a snowball earth is looming and threatens to freeze it all. There is some spring ...
5
votes
4answers
224 views
How can Mars have life but still be “The Red Planet”
Building on this question "Discovery of life on Mars"
Mars is habitable (40% the mass of Earth, 6.06 m/s² gravity, escape velocity of 7.88 km/s, a satellite big enough to stabilize its axis and has ...
6
votes
4answers
667 views
Why should astronauts grow and eat Caulerpa taxifolia, the world's biggest single-celled organism?
Caulerpa taxifolia, an algae species popular with aquarium owners, is the largest single-celled organism known to us as of today. It is notable for being able to regenerate from any part of the body ...
4
votes
3answers
250 views
Could a Tree grow around a humanoid being?
So, let’s say a group of survivors tie an immortal being to a young tree sapling. The immortal does not need food, nor water, so can survive indefinitely.
After about 100 years, could that young ...
10
votes
3answers
2k views
Can a gorse plant be used as a source of food?
I have a fantasy kingdom set up where the landscape is mostly mountainous with rock and pine forests, like the picture below. As such, it is quite difficult to have agriculture. One plant which can ...
4
votes
3answers
220 views
Building a Realistic Food Web
So far, I've begun developing a food web for a swampy biome. Currently, the result of this free building is shown in the mess below (built = orange, aquatic = blue, producer = green, not built yet = ...
6
votes
2answers
122 views
Maximum realistic salinity level with thriving aquatic environment?
I'm trying to create a planet which environment is not immediately lethal to humans, (reasonable oxygen level) however after closer inspection turns out not to be specially Earth-like.
One issues is ...
4
votes
2answers
161 views
How would plants evolve with longer days?
(First post on StackExchange, hello world!)
The project that I'm currently working on involves a Binary Planet system, both with life, although I'm only focusing on one. This planet has a climate ...
29
votes
8answers
5k views
How would trees communicate?
An alternate world is populated by mainly intelligent trees and other plants. These plants are almost exactly the same, biologically, as Earth's plants. The world's climate and geology are very ...
4
votes
3answers
157 views
A Planet with No Animals
Assuming that an Earth analog was inhabited by both plants and animals like our Earth. Could the non-animal life on the planet survive the absence of animals (excluding sponges and corals) on the ...
-2
votes
3answers
104 views
The Stone-age Limbo People - How do they hunt wild boar?
The Limbo People (who are hominids with intelligence somewhere between chimpanzees and humans) have long survived by hunting wild boar. They use spears with wooden hafts and flint tips. They are a ...
0
votes
1answer
76 views
Floating Ocean Vegetation
I have several types of free-floating vegetation to pick from:
Trees
Reeds/grasses
Lily Pad like-plants
Which type would best survive in the open ocean supporting small pockets of creatures, since ...
1
vote
5answers
125 views
What Plants To Grow In Space? [duplicate]
Plants are quite useful to the intrepid space colonist, in addition to providing food, plants also help reduce life support burden and psychological stress by adding a splash of green to all those ...
6
votes
4answers
327 views
Cave/Subterranean Lighting
I have a cave that is ravine like and stretches approximately one kilometer down into the Earth. Let's assume that the cave has a clear, crystalline roof allowing some light in.
Is there any sort of ...
6
votes
3answers
105 views
Botanical Barricades
I have a clonal colony of trees that are around 150 meters in height and live in a wetland habitat. These trees cover the majority of the wetland area, covering thousands of square miles.
What ...
0
votes
1answer
111 views
What poisons could have been hidden in food or drink used in the early 1700's? [closed]
I'm writing a character who has to kill her children by poisoning. I just need something they wouldn't have tasted. It doesn't matter if it kills them fast or slow (either will work). Back then ...
5
votes
2answers
146 views
Do these plants make sense in the way I want them to establish in my world?
(Beforehand I'll excuse myself for my english. If you didn't need to know that you can just ignore it)
There's a network of root-like life forms in the top layers of my planet. They use some kind of ...
13
votes
2answers
740 views
Anatomically Correct: Space Plankton
This creature was void-born in the farthest depths of time in this Universe. Drawing its energy from electromagnetic radiation, and sealed against the vacuum of space, this drifting creature ...
4
votes
4answers
258 views
Purple plants on a planet orbiting a green star?
Before I continue, yes, green stars don't really exist visually. Although stars like the Sun are green stars, they appear white (and are known as yellow dwarfs) because it doesn't only emit green ...
7
votes
1answer
366 views
Can fiber optic cables be used to pipe sunlight into an underground bunker for growing plants?
One major problem with living underground is you lose all of that wonderful energy provided by the sun. This energy is useful for many things including growing plants for food. A window is effectively ...
4
votes
2answers
149 views
Compass on a Ringed, Earth-like Planet
Is it necessarily a given that a compass (as they magnetically function on Earth) could be made to function similarly on an alternate, Earth-like, ringed planet?
Another way of asking: is it feasible ...
2
votes
1answer
71 views
Anaerobic Fungal or Plant life
The Dark Warlock Susie has heard of a cave system with a lethal density of argon that is protecting a burgeoning monster population. In the interest of beefing up her security, Susie wants to recreate ...
3
votes
4answers
605 views
Could a new species wipe out the rest of an established ecosystem?
I'm not asking about an exotic species in the modern world we know all too well the havoc that can be caused by the introduction of an alien species into an existing ecosystem. I want to know if a ...
1
vote
1answer
63 views
Food crops for a planet with short year
Kjør bestillingen 92 umiddelbart. Frøhvelvet skal åpnes, skyttelbussen skal tilberedes.
(Execute Order 92 immediately; the seed vault is to be opened, the shuttle prepared)
&...
4
votes
1answer
229 views
Mega-Dandelion Seed Size
How large, referring to weight, could a Dandelion seed become before the wind was no longer able to carry them away? Assume the physiology of both the seed and plant remain the same besides being ...
6
votes
6answers
521 views
Producing oxygen without plants
Obviously, current oxygen levels should last us years, so we are talking about a long-term solution.
Also, in this hypothetical scenario, plants have stopped releasing oxygen but haven't stop ...
9
votes
5answers
2k views
Exploding fruit mechanism
I'm designing an alien tree species that produces small purple fruits at the edge of its braches. Now a few seconds after one of these fruits falls from the tree it makes a small explosion so that its ...
0
votes
3answers
112 views
Human Survival on Alien Flora/Fauna [duplicate]
Allow me to pose yet another hypothetical.
Your spaceship has crash-landed on an earth-like planet. The air is breathable. The gravity is a bearable 1.2 g. The planet is teeming with fauna and ...
