Questions tagged [flora]
For questions related to plants and vegetation in general.
2
votes
1answer
38 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 ...
4
votes
3answers
509 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
50 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
87 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
308 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
81 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 ...
11
votes
6answers
2k views
Materials in a tidal water world
I'm trying to create a people that live on this rolling tide (see previous question or on 'millers planet') but I haven't figured out where they would get wood to build their boats/homes. If the tide ...
5
votes
1answer
232 views
What if animals evolved from fungi?
So in my book series, there is this planet called Axaca. However, it is very different from most of the galaxy in that its flora is almost completely fungal. Here are some things to know:
Trees are ...
7
votes
1answer
106 views
Anatomically Correct Tiberium - Part 1 (Mineral Leaching)
In the Command & Conquer series of games, there is a mythical 'plant' life called Tiberium. It ends up being of alien origin through the course of the games, but its role in the game is as a ...
4
votes
1answer
114 views
How tall could bamboo grow
How tall could a bamboo-like (i.e hollow with nodes) tree be ? It should be at very least 1.5m of diameter and walls no more than 20cm thick. The internodes should be 2 to 5 meter long. I think it ...
8
votes
4answers
352 views
How would flora be affected by longer night than day cycle?
Night/Day Cycle
I'm trying to make a fantasy world with a longer night cycle than day.
With the advice of Renan, 12 hours of proper night, 4 hours of near/partial dark and 8 hours of good light. ...
6
votes
3answers
213 views
What would it take for a plant to produce electric shocks?
I'm designing an alien plant soecies that has evolved to produce electric shocks, as a way to keep insects away from it. My question is, how would it produce electricity in the first place? Also, ...
2
votes
1answer
93 views
What would happen if all (higher) life magically became sentient and reached human-level intelligence? [closed]
Overnight, all higher life, multicellular life forms from trees and grass to dogs and elephants reached a level of intelligence similar to that of humans. For example, they can communicate effectively,...
7
votes
6answers
228 views
Plausibility Check: Kite Trees?
Disclaimer: This question, unlike my other tree related question, was brought about by pure whimsical daydreaming. I also threw the term "evolve" around a lot, I should clarify that what I asking is ...
9
votes
2answers
140 views
Plausibility Check: Territorial Trees?
Background
In case you haven't heard: there are places in the Amazonian Jungle called Devil's Gardens. The gardens are large swaths of land composed of almost entirely one single tree the Duroia ...
7
votes
4answers
125 views
Are Extraterrestrial's pagoda trees plausible?
In the National Geographic mini-series Extraterrestrial or Alien Worlds, they featured a hypothetical gas giant moon called the Blue Moon. The Blue Moon orbits a binary star, has a very dense ...
13
votes
5answers
1k views
Are plastic plants plausible?
Edit: some answerers seem to be slightly misunderstanding the nature of the premise. Remember that the concept here is this; In the Precambrian of Earth, bacteria evolve to extract the abundant ...
3
votes
1answer
108 views
Plant-Animal reproduction
I'm designing an Anthropomorphic Lu-pine. (Get it? Cuz it's technically a tree, but it looks like a werewolf.) They are mobile, omnivorous plants, slightly larger than the average person. They are ...
11
votes
7answers
333 views
Could a plant vocalise and how?
If given a reason to develop such a process, such as attracting prey or scaring away threats or even making recognisable patterns to 'talk' to humans, what is the most likely way they would do this?
...
1
vote
0answers
82 views
A huge desert full of green sand, seated on a plateau, is steadily drained into the nearby lowlands. What happens to the environment? [closed]
I have a large plateau, and roughly in the center are mile-high cliffs surrounding a valley.
Inside the valley is a green sandy desert. The sand is composed of olivine. Unfortunately for the ...
2
votes
1answer
148 views
Viability of animal plant? (Energy calculation)
I'm trying to design a humanoid or anthropomorphic organism that would be classified as a plant. The main argument people mention is that it wouldn't be able to produce enough energy to survive. I've ...
5
votes
3answers
96 views
How relevant is new genetic diversity for plant/animal populations badly bottlenecked several centuries ago?
Scenario: A major ecological disaster occurred five hundred years ago, in which large numbers of species (including almost all wild fauna) went extinct. Assume that the environment both before and ...
6
votes
4answers
182 views
How long could an alien species survive at sea?
The species in question are Herbivores, bipedal in nature, around 50 to 80 pounds on average, and require around 2250 calories per day to stay healthy.
The ships these populations would live on are ...
26
votes
11answers
5k views
Which plant species would be most likely to recover after a decade of no light?
Presume a decade of darkness, after a several months of steadily shortening daylight. Assume that the temperature and weather patterns remain (inexplicably) fairly unchanged.
Ten years later, when ...
0
votes
2answers
57 views
Complete Biosphere DNA Collection [closed]
So you have just come across a new life bearing planet with organisms with Earth-like biology. You want to accomplish a complete biosphere analysis (sample collection) in a timely manner. How would ...
1
vote
3answers
196 views
A Temperate Deciduous Monster--Too Big?
What is a flower or shrub back home is a tree in an alternate Earth, and vice versa. That is something worth exploring.
For example, Taraxacum officinale can grow from stems typically up to 5-40 ...
8
votes
3answers
254 views
Largest Flower Size Possible
On an Earth analog, assuming all the selective pressures necessary are there, how large can a flower's bloom evolve to be? I'm referring the the vegetative part of the flower, the petals! I have no ...
2
votes
0answers
71 views
Feasibility of Continent Spanning Trees [duplicate]
I have a world smaller than Earth (radius= 3,900 Km) with the same gravity and it is largely covered in interconnected continents. I also have a species of tree that can create a clonal forest of ...
0
votes
3answers
193 views
Feasibility of a mainly forested planet
I have a small planet with a Radius of 3,900 kilometers and a density of 8.9 g/cc. It has an extremely Earth-like climate and has been extremely volcanically and geologically active in the "recent" ...
4
votes
7answers
2k views
Could natural selection imitate humans' selective breeding?
I have a small isolated archipelago. Is it feasible that the flora of the island through natural selection (with animals favoring bigger fruits) has been steered to evolve large, plump fruits of the ...
3
votes
2answers
80 views
What Other Types of Broadleaves Would Grow in Subarctic Conditions?
As it turns out, conifers are not the only trees to grow in boreal forests, or taiga. At the southernmost ends, the evergreens are mixed with such deciduous trees as:
Birch
Alder
Willow
Poplar
Maple
...
9
votes
3answers
205 views
Feasibility of Giant Fungi
I have a temperate rainforest environment within the arctic circle of my planet. What is the feasibility of fungi storing nutrients from dead matter during the daylight hours, then erupting to create ...
29
votes
13answers
4k views
Can a planet harbor plants of different colors without one pigment outcompeting the others?
On Earth, all plants are green because they contain the pigment chlorophyll, which photosynthesizes by absorbing all light except green light.
However, it is quite possible - if not likely - that ...
14
votes
6answers
2k views
Sugar-bomb tree mechanics
I'm developing a tree that has a peculiar fruit. Instead of having water in said fruit, there is nothing but sugar. The tree pumps sugar into a hollow orb which slowly "bakes," caramelizing into an ...
8
votes
4answers
197 views
Herb and plant creation with real life botany information
I've been on the worldbuilding StackExchange for a little while now and I have yet to see a specific line of questioning. How do I design and create flora for my world? As this particular question may ...
24
votes
14answers
10k views
How to kill trees?
In a world where magic energy and life-force are compatible if not equivalent forces, woodcutting can be a problem in regions with high magic potential.
If a woodcutter fells a tree and leaves it, it ...
1
vote
0answers
66 views
Life on oceans above the sky [closed]
The Leidenfrost effect is a physical phenomenon in which a liquid, in near contact with a mass significantly hotter than the liquid's boiling point, produces an insulating vapor layer keeping that ...
27
votes
6answers
8k views
Could a virus that just kills plants be the end of us all?
Skip to Info if you can't be bothered reading
(Story Plot)
There are two super powers in a "cold war" scenario. One side decided that nuclear war wasn't the only thing they could use to hurt their ...
5
votes
4answers
172 views
What happens to plants when the temperature increases a lot in a couple of years?
Consider an area of a fantasy world which experiences the following changes:
Amount on rainfall, and thunderstorms, increases dramatically.
Average temperature increases by 10-20 degrees Celsius over ...
6
votes
3answers
218 views
Is this a viable/realistic imaginary species?
I am creating a species for my alien world that will be seen as 'holy' by the planets dominant religion. I'd like to know if my 'holy' species could viably exist biologically/evolutionarily.
Assume ...
1
vote
1answer
179 views
How could magic theoretically alter flora/fauna? [closed]
My world is close to an alternate earth except totally different. The planets name is Ethuna, and instead of magma and a molten core, it's made of a ball of energy connecting huge masses of rock. This ...
8
votes
5answers
786 views
How to design a hyper-coffee plant
How much caffeine could you fit into a roasted coffee bean (that will later be ground and steeped) while still having a strong coffee flavor?
I'm aiming for a super-caffeine boost -- something where ...
4
votes
2answers
220 views
How would a tree that can create its own wind work and look like?
I had an idea of a wind tree that can create wind but it is not man-made) in a fantasy world. Then I began to think/wonder of ways it could realistically work without any magic.
So thats where I'm ...
9
votes
5answers
312 views
How would a plant adapted to living at -23 degrees Celsius keep ice from clogging its stomata?
Full version of the question: How would a plant adapted to living at -23 degrees Celsius keep the water vapor it transpirates from flash freezing to the surface of/within its leaves and clogging its ...
8
votes
3answers
208 views
If I made a plant that could float between clouds, what would it look like?
If I had complete control over the plant's appearance, what would be the best shape for it?
I need the plant to be able to float between the clouds. It doesn't have to spend its whole life cycle ...
1
vote
2answers
120 views
How much darker could the sun get without killing off the plants necessary for the production of oxygen?
So essentially in my story, aliens put something around the sun that doesn't stop all the light from it hitting Earth, but only some of it, effectively dimming the light without outright extinguishing ...
0
votes
2answers
96 views
How do I go about creating new flora and fauna in my novel? [closed]
In my novel most species of animals and plant life have gone extinct, and they have to be created again. Some of these reborn animals and plants are old and others are supposed to be brand new species....
25
votes
16answers
6k views
How to make sure humans do not know the meteorological phenomenon rainbow?
You've got to love the rainbow, it's an awesome sight. But I don't want humans to have the pleasure of seeing the rainbow.
What change to the earth, atmosphere and so on, is needed so that humans ...
14
votes
4answers
361 views
Can a Prototaxite be used for a wood equivalent?
Prototaxites.
Giant, finger-shaped mushrooms.
Painting by Mary Parrish, National Museum of Natural History.
These monsters existed before trees did, and while there are a few theories on whether ...
