Worldbuilding

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For questions related to plants and vegetation in general.

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6
votes
2answers
128 views

How much energy do plants produce?

Consider a magic system that follows the Eragon model; "doing it by magic takes just as much (biological) energy as doing it the mundane way". In Eragon, magical energy can be drawn from other living ...
2
votes
2answers
111 views

Bryophitic Plants in an Underwater Forest

By "bryophitic", I mean "non-vascular land plants", being the liverworts and the mosses. (Hornworts are comparative latecomers, so we won't be talking about them.) Without vascular tissues, these ...
2
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1answer
70 views

Mega fauna and flora on a super earth

I am working on a super-earth, about 1.5 more massive than Earth. On this planet, there's a large variety of megafauna and flora across the world. The biggest trees over there can grow to be 36 meters ...
1
vote
1answer
68 views

What Star would encourage what color of plants? or, a table of star types to the most efficient plant color [duplicate]

Using the following list of stars, what color is the most efficient for plants to absorb the ideal amount of energy? (This is not a complete list of star types, just some big examples) Yellow Dwarf ...
4
votes
4answers
214 views

Are continent wide forest fires possible?

The setting I have in mind is an Earth-similar planet which has most of its landmass covered in forests. A civil conflict on this planet ingnites forests fires, which then spread. I was wondering if ...
7
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2answers
201 views

Would it be possible to survive on a world with only plants?

If you were air dropped onto another planet, where multi-cellular non-plant life did not evolve, could you survive on what was only around you? The planet in question is a clone of earth, in almost ...
5
votes
4answers
169 views

Would 5 years be long enough for a small society to start producing a surplus of food?

Would a community of around 300 people be able to start producing plentiful food in ~5 years post a civil war and plague? They were an isolated quite wealthy community, in a sub-tropical area, mainly ...
6
votes
2answers
138 views

Tall trees : atmospheric pressure

In my previous post, I asked about how tall trees could grow in my world. To be honest, I really need those trees to be huge for my storie, because a big part of the plot will be linked to those big ...
6
votes
2answers
166 views

Hanging World - Trees

Scenario A civilization is living on an ancient super structure, they don't know much about it, they just live there and have lived there for as long as they know. For our current situation we can ...
1
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1answer
88 views

How tall would animals, trees and “humans” grow on a planet with those characteristics?

I am working on a planet were life (trees, plants, food, animals, humans) would be bigger/taller than Earth. I have learned that oxygen level or gravity, for example, could help change the size of ...
5
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3answers
103 views

Designing flora: placing herbs

So I have noticed that most herbs come from the Mediterranean as confirmed by this site and those that do not often come from either actual Mediterranean climates or somewhat arid ones. So my ...
2
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3answers
152 views

Another Giant Tree Attempt

I want to propose a new method for tree growth to exceed the max of 120 or 130 meters restricted by Earth's gravity. I propose for the tree to rely very little on its base or roots. The living part of ...
6
votes
1answer
78 views

Environment/Ecosystem for a “Sunfall” colony

I've read a lot of posts about moons around large gas giants and I think I have fairly good idea about basics to them. I'm not super great with all the science parts myself but they give me lots of ...
6
votes
5answers
240 views

What would the flora and fauna be like on a planet with the most competition? The most violent planet

My setting has a lush rainforest planet, which houses some of the most feared animals in the galaxy. The abundance of food would make competition tougher and tougher over millions of years of ...
2
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0answers
52 views

The Marine Jungle of More Than Just Angiosperms [closed]

Recently, I asked whether or not the other plant groups besides the angiosperms could evolve to adapt to being submerged under salty ocean water 24/7. While marine conifers, ginkgoes, cycads, ferns, ...
11
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1answer
3k views

What effect would a red sky and/or sun have on plants and animals?

If an Earth-like planet had an older, red sun — or maybe just a reddish sky due to some property of the atmosphere — how would that affect the growth and/or adaptation of plant and animal life on the ...
3
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7answers
420 views

Grass on planets with very huge forests

This is a reality check: I want a planet with huge forests and a relatively (to Earth) high level of CO2, but I also want there to be very large areas of grassland, (savannahs) where we naturally ...
16
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6answers
4k views

How does gravity affect evolution of life?

I have two "new" planet earths -- we'll call them Light Earth (LE) and Heavy Earth (HE). These planets are generally the same as our Earth in terms of land masses, oceans, the moon and sun and other ...
5
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3answers
86 views

Recreating Dinosaurs (or at least doppelgangers)

In theory organisms derived from birds through genetic engineering could resemble theropod dinosaurs. So my question is what animals would serve as the basis for the other two groups of dinosaurs (...
1
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0answers
84 views

De-Extinction Candidates [closed]

I know the classic deextinction candidates such as the passenger pigeon or wooly mammoth. What other animals do we have the potential to revive? Are there any odd candidates such as other mastodons or ...
7
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1answer
74 views

Could a Greater Number and Diversity of Marine Plant Species be Possible?

As landlubbers, we often let ourselves think that if salty seawater is undrinkable for us, it could be even worse for plants. However, certain types of angiosperms have found ways to not only thrive ...
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7answers
7k views

How could a sentient plant evolve and what conditions would be required for this evolution?

This is my entry for the fortnightly topic challenge In Day of the Triffids, many people go blind and the basic summary is this: virulent plague makes most of humanity blind giant, semi-intelligent ...
2
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1answer
90 views

A desert planet with temperate polar regions could sustain how much plant-life? Any?

One proposed type of desert planet is one in which the equator and the "tropics" are harsh, hot deserts, but the polar regions are temperate, habitable, and lush with life. You can see an example of ...
5
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4answers
400 views

We Have Successfully Established Plants and Insects on Mars. How Long Will It Take Them to Colonize the Entire Planet?

In my last question, I have asked on how, once Mars has been terraformed, Terran species of plants and the insects on which the majority of them rely on would adapt to Mars's longer year. By far, the ...
5
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2answers
269 views

Electrosynthetic Autotrophs

Photosynthesis has an abysmal efficiency with regards to converting solar energy into useful fuel for a plant, and I was wondering: 1) If it would be possible to engineer a plant to accept electrical ...
8
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1answer
105 views

What color would plants orbiting a white dwarf have?

So, let's say there's a white dwarf star that has recently been born (by recently, let's say about 3 million years ago) Now around that time, a rogue planet, about the same size and mass as earth, ...
2
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1answer
117 views

How Can Plants and Insects Cope With Living on a Terraformed Mars?

If we humans are serious about terraforming our famous neighbor, Mars, then the terraforming process would take thousands of years before it becomes habitable enough for humans to live in. But that ...
6
votes
1answer
321 views

What would a silicone-based plant, especially a tree, look like?

This question's information is based on the answer in my previous question about what the aquatic creature need in order to live or survive in my acid water? The thing that's not in the description ...
30
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9answers
6k views

Can there be plants on the dark side of a tidally locked world?

In my story, there is an Earth-sized planet orbiting a red dwarf, tidally locked to its parent star, with large oceans like Earth, two moons similar to ours and a thick atmosphere to distribute heat ...
4
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2answers
137 views

How could a plant harness kinetic energy?

This post about a tidally-locked planet got me thinking about plants and wind. Let's say plants evolve on a perpetually windy, tidally-locked earth-like planet around a sun-like star at about 1 AU. ...
9
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2answers
798 views

Alternative to Magnesium's Role in Photosynthesis

It is a known fact that magnesium is a very important part of photosynthesis and chlorophyll. I have looked everywhere to try to find out this question but I have never really gotten a solid answer. ...
8
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2answers
713 views

Can a giant mushroom be used as a material to build watercraft or sailing ships?

The basis for this question is the selected answer for Plausibility of Mushroom Buildings. Prototaxites and braket fungus are the likely candidates but I want to know if this type of fungis can float ...
0
votes
1answer
69 views

What kind of society would a species of autotrophic plants create? [closed]

The setting includes both magic and 21st century technology. The species in question are non-sessile, sentient and sapient trees, and has evolved that way due to the threat of a xylophagous predator. ...
5
votes
1answer
95 views

Terraforming a tide-locked planet

Over several hundred years, a tide-locked, but otherwise Earth-like, planet orbiting a red dwarf is terraformed. The terminator is a very habitable zone, in terms of temperature, atmosphere, etc. ...
2
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2answers
136 views

GMO Agriculture - Medieval farming with modern day seeds and advanced robots, how hard or how easy could it be to be rich using them?

Let's just say that you are stuck in a different world. You found a biological research and production starship wreck... You decided to have GMO plants/seeds agriculture on your land that you bought ...
6
votes
3answers
273 views

How impossible would a bioluminescent plant-based lifeform be?

Looking for alternative sources of lighting for my current worldbuilding project so I couldn't help but wonder if a bioluminescent plant-based lifeforms could be realistically feasible. I'm just ...
13
votes
8answers
454 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 ...
7
votes
6answers
622 views

World with dodecahedron-shaped trees

Premise I was inspired by Karl Niklas who used computer modeling to simulate the ideal structure for a tree when different traits were favored. Here is a chart summarizing his work: Explanation L (...
6
votes
4answers
599 views

Planting Trees in Outer Space

Say a group of people travel to a different planet where they have to wear spacesuits to live (because there's no oxygen and because of the atmosphere's density). What would happen if they planted ...
25
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9answers
4k views

How to check what is edible on an alien world? [duplicate]

You've landed on another planet. There are some forms of plants and animals on this world but how do you know what is safe to eat? Obviously we went through this on earth, finding the right berries ...
40
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24answers
8k views

Why can't my huge trees be chopped down?

In my world there is a forest of huge trees which people can't or won't chop down. The trees are similar to redwood trees but they have a large crown and no lower branches. The forest is quite dark ...
4
votes
7answers
413 views

Growing blue trees

What about the atmosphere of earth makes green the best color for plants, and what would have to change to make blue the best color? The fact that these changes could not happen on earth, an so would ...
11
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2answers
314 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 ...
4
votes
1answer
120 views

Questions about sick trees in wood

I want to write a piece of fiction about a female tree caretaker who researches a small group of beeches in a wood. When she arrives, she sees that the trees are dried out. Is it realistic to say ...
9
votes
1answer
161 views

What plant colours other than black could be available on a red dwarf planet?

Hello! I'm no scientist so I've reached the limit of my knowledge. I was wondering if any of you smart beans out there would be able to help me figure this out? Here are the specs of my system; ...
9
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3answers
458 views

Is it possible to farm in a swamp?

In my world they live in a swamp similar to the Okeefenokee swamp in Georgia. My question is, would it be possible to farm certain plants like wild rice, milkweed, and lilypads in these conditions? ...
6
votes
4answers
929 views

Could Bamboos Evolve Into Trees In the Past?

This question is based on a scenario on DeviantArt. The presented image is here: The description is as follows: By the start of the Cryocene, bamboo has become one of Serina's most successful ...
4
votes
3answers
139 views

Ice Dome Greenhouse

I have an icy planet with temperatures that average about -100 degrees Fahrenheit (-73,3 °C). The planet also has thousands if not millions of domes scattered across its completely icy surface heated ...
14
votes
3answers
2k views

How big should a terrarium be to be self-sustained?

I read some time ago about terraria (singular: terrarium), which are basically small ecosystems of plants, isolated from the outside world (they get just energy from outside, not water or oxygen). The ...
3
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4answers
3k views

If a world had a massive single giant world tree could it stop an earthquake?

You know stuff like Yggdrasil tree but just a normal tree that is the biggest and tallest in the world. If the roots grow to surpass the continental and oceanic plate either it only cover some parts ...

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