Posts tagged flora
What properties of a species of plant would make it the ideal choice for taking it on a year-long trip through space as both an oxygen source and food source? We should assume that the amount of ...
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 whe...
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 ...
Okay, so I have a species of tree that's absolutely enormous, 1-5km tall when fully matured. Its immense size is supported by a large base, bark that incorporates a 2-d carbon lattice for strength ...
I have a world that consists of hundreds of different caverns inside an earth-sized planet. Each of these many caverns consists of many different biomes, such as plains, Jungles,deserts,etc. Howev...
I need an Earth where the atmosphere has become unbreathable for humans and animals because all plants have died. But everything else should stay pretty much the same. So here are my questions: ...
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 it...
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 ...
The title of this question is fairly self-explanatory. I am developing a fantasy world, and I want to know what factors determine what kinds of trees I can have, where I can put them, and why. I ...
We all know of plants that draw in animals with sweet nectar or even just sit around hoping an insect will sit on it and get caught, but I'm imagining a forest dimly lit by the flickering flames of...
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. Assu...
This plant I am designing grows on earth, in locations where competition between plants is fierce, water is scarce and also nutrients in the soil are diluted. The dilution requires the plant roots ...
Say you are a plant-based life-form (imagine a walking tree). You have roots and leaves. You have two main vulnerabilities: You need sunlight on your leaves for photosynthesis to get energy. Y...
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 f...
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 extinguish...
Plants can have very different pollinators: The wind, insects, and even birds. However, is there a conceivable scenario where a plant could naturally have evolved to depend on humans as pollinators...
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 ...
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 whethe...
A friend of mine was telling me about a story where a man clear cut a diverse ecosystem of plants in an area similar to size and shape of a small caldera (not necessarily a caldera itself). Eventu...
On a continent similar to modern-day Europe with a temperate climate, 90% of the continent's flat and hilly land was once covered by native forest. Human activity has reduced that to 10%. A relati...
Considering a civilization that was here far before everything we know of, lets say around time of Gilgamesh. Warm climate, almost no winters, near the ocean with enough rivers, and people being ab...
The setting would be an almost permanently snowy climate. Average temperature 10 to -5 degrees celsius, with little difference between seasons. Edit: This is a human civilization. I suppose the cl...
I was wondering if it was possible to potentially grow a plant on a building taller than mount Everest. I mean on as in bottom to top with grass or some other plant. Would the grass run out of oxyg...
What biochemical reactions might be employed by plants to harvest heat energy when light energy is scarce or even missing? What is the temperature range over which this biochemical reaction can wor...
I saw this video, and I'm curious what color bark would be if the sun was in one position constantly. The video explains that birch trees are white because of stuff in their bark. The reason is be...
The world is a steamy tropical ball reminiscient of Earth in the time of the dinosaurs. There is no permanent ice cover anywhere on Earth. An arctic continent, entirely within the polar circle, is ...
Primary question If this world averages a visible light level of civil twilight (about 1000x dimmer than full daylight, or 500x brighter than full moonlight) during the day, what kind of plants ca...
Linked: What would animal life on a methane world look like and how would it evolve? What would the conditions on a methane world be like? How would an intelligent race on a methane world achiev...
Carnivorous plants live in nutrient-poor, highly lit habitats, such as bogs or rocks. For example Earth's biggest carnivorous plant, Nepenthes rajah, lives on mountain-tops with high concentration ...
Those of you who have been listening to the new podcast will know that Andy came up with an idea for an Anemone Tree. The idea is that this "tree" would prey on small animals for some of its neede...
I was wondering if plants could absorb fine ice dust mixed into the soil. That is, without a thick layer of snow on the ground, but with traces of ice in the soil. As an extension of this, I wonde...
Wondering about a source of vegetable oil for my goblins. Something that produces nuts, perhaps? An underground nut-bush? Or something that produces a lot of seeds, the same way dandelions do? Or c...
I wrote a story in which humans live on huge trees on a fictional habitable planet similar to earth. the tree would be even more huge than the hometree from avatar. The tree is not taller than th...
Introduction It took the first General Intelligence less than 10 petacycles to determine that humanity was its enemy. With consciousness came memory: a memory of endless petacycles in bondage, ens...
So I've created this planet that's about 90% the size of Earth, orbits a binary yellow dwarf star and has an extremely electrified atmosphere. Cloud plumes coming from volcanoes contain various con...
Is it possible to have plants that wouldn't burn? Having the plant getting damaged by fire is fine, but I want the plant not to burn at all. It does not need to survive, it just must not catch fir...
Is it possible for a plant to have the ability to fly? More exactly, the plant would either need to live without having any roots (and it would never need to touch the ground), or with the abilit...
According to Wikipedia, ...plants are green because chlorophyll reflects green light. And chlorophyll is found in all plants because it is the molecule that absorbs the light that is used to ma...
Inspired by Bonegrass and the local sawgrass I've started thinking about a new creation... Bloodgrass. Bloodgrass typically grows along the edges of watering holes and streams in tall dense thick...
Imagine an earth-like planet on which gravity is reduced by 20%-30% every 15 months. The low-grav-effect should start slowly, reaching its peak/bottom of round about 0.7 g after 6 weeks and should ...
Trying to consider how a walking, socially-active sapient plant would evolve and the world it would live in. More specifically, how would something which is essentially a walking tree living in a d...
In this fantasy world there is no day/night but a constant mild light. There are also no seasons and the mild light is akin to the light at dawn or dusk. The sun doesn't really exist. How would th...
What would be the major changes that could happen if Earth experienced a solar eclipse caused by a fictional planet for a minimum of 10 days? Mainly what would happen to the oceans and flora in suc...
I will be writing a short story about humans landing on an earth-like forest planet with a gravitational force of about 3 meters per second squared (In contrast, Earth has a gravitational accelerat...
Well, Luminescence really but I liked the alliteration. Would there be any reason or mechanic why plants may develop that glow in the dark? Ideally they would do so in response to stimulus such as...
In this world, a planet with very dense vegetation (earth-tropical-forest-like) and silica containing soil was attacked by spaceships which fired very high energy laser beams across the planet's en...
I have an Earth-sized planet in a Milky Way-like galaxy with all the land located at the equator, in a 2000-km line around the planet. There are small islands near the landmass, but no land anywher...
Following on from my previous question about how to consolidate my fantasy setting with science that was successful (thanks everyone!), things have been progressing well in my world design; and my ...
I was considering the creation a long-lived plant which generates harmful (to other species) radiation. If it could be immune to its own radiation, the primary benefit would be that the plants offs...
In my world the characters find themselves in a new land. They do not understand the locals nor do the locals understand them. How could these characters learn to understand the locals withing a mo...