tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post2352623572466921184..comments2024-03-25T09:31:36.926+01:00Comments on Furahan Biology and Allied Matters: Adding oddity (alien plants II)Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-15185761814345190262012-12-15T07:05:25.508+01:002012-12-15T07:05:25.508+01:00I've taken several approaches to increasing th...I've taken several approaches to increasing the bizarrerie of the plants in my own worldbuilding project. Many of them employ a reproductive strategy similar to that suggested by J. W. Bjerk, with mobile, wandering "seeds" that seek out places to take root based on soil quality, level of sunlight, and water availability, while others are strange in that they employ a growth pattern similar to quite a few plants on Earth (Pando, the clonal colony of quaking aspens, is the most obvious example of this), and spread out not just vertically but laterally. What makes them peculiar is that they spread out aboveground, not below (I have little justification for this other than "it looks cooler," I'm afraid--but then, banyans do something similar, so it's not completely implausible), producing a strange spongy network of stalks and branches capable of reaching great heights due to the combination of both lateral and vertical support.Dromicosuchushttp://dejerara.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-65237280683558961262011-02-01T23:15:55.897+01:002011-02-01T23:15:55.897+01:00Dear Anonymous
Please read a earlier post: http://...Dear Anonymous<br />Please read a earlier post: http://planetfuraha.blogspot.com/2009/05/alien-plants.html<br /><br />You state that plants would benefit having simple eyes. Do they? Remember that survival is simple: you live and spread genes or you do not. It is only useful to have eyes to see something coming to eat you if you can move away from them in time! There is no evolutionary advantage in good vision if you cannot act: you die anyway.<br /><br />Add a protection mechanism that 1. requires vision to activate it and that 2. prevents being eaten, then you are in business.Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-20862811436166574022011-02-01T21:31:27.319+01:002011-02-01T21:31:27.319+01:00I recommend watching the Secret Life of Plants. It...I recommend watching the Secret Life of Plants. It'll surprise you how much plants move when the footage of their growth is sped up.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-29188539920105331512011-02-01T21:17:46.569+01:002011-02-01T21:17:46.569+01:00I wonder why plant life has evolved without organs...I wonder why plant life has evolved without organs such as eyes on Earth? Even if plants evolved simple eyes it would benefit their survival. Maybe it takes to much energy? I don't know.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-21560844323371347882010-08-30T06:42:52.282+02:002010-08-30T06:42:52.282+02:00plants are an ingenious design, it just seems we a...plants are an ingenious design, it just seems we are so used to them that we dont appreciate their variety (my personal opnion)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-87064647032266563672010-08-29T19:52:52.831+02:002010-08-29T19:52:52.831+02:00Fascinating! Are the Mixomorphs photosynthetic?Fascinating! Are the Mixomorphs photosynthetic?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-38651997465951552142010-08-29T08:54:21.923+02:002010-08-29T08:54:21.923+02:00J.W. & Anonymous,
it is funny that you come u...J.W. & Anonymous,<br /><br />it is funny that you come up with traits that are found on Furaha, but with mixomorphs, not plants. The reason that there are no terrestrial ballonts is either that they cannot work well enough, or that they require too many simultaneous developments such as hydrogen production, and a membrane of a substance like spider's silk. <br /><br />Here is part of the text for the "bubble tree", unpublished:<br /><br />"The normal larval birth canals have been shaped into large siphons, which are certainly not a regular mixomorph trait. The siphons are connected to the breeding chambers, and these in turn are connected to gas-secreting glands. The larvae have the normal quadritentaculate mixomorph shape, to which a kind of stalk is added, growing upward from the body, terminating in a broad disc. They also grow a bladder, with a single opening around the larval stalk. The bladder is connected to the stalk by an umbilical cord. When larval development is complete and atmospheric conditions are right, the adult squeezes one larva at a time into the siphon, with a balloon facing to the exit. The tree then starts to secrete gas under the larva. The rising pressure inflates the bladder. The siphon gradually widens, enabling the balloon to be slowly squeezed upwards, trailing the larva behind it. When it reaches the opening of the siphon, the balloon suddenly pops free. The pressure inside the inflated balloon now presses the larval disc down against the opening in the balloon, effectively sealing it. The young bubble tree floats off into the sky, carried aloft by its parent's gas supply.The wind disperses the drifting young, until their balloons slowly lose their buoyancy. After landing, the balloons drop off, and the larvae can crawl about in typical mixomorph fashion. They seek a suitable spot to put down roots and begin the permanently sessile part of their lives."Sigmund Nastrazzurrohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16449461215427527447noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-34355272426360214272010-08-29T08:19:24.973+02:002010-08-29T08:19:24.973+02:00I like the idea of plants that support themselves ...I like the idea of plants that support themselves with lighter-than-air gases, ballont plants. Such a plant could take the form of a bunch of photosynthetic gas bags tethered to the ground by a long skinny stem. In tropical climates where the air is moist and still, some ballont plants could dispense with a stem and just float freely in the air, like unsupported epiphytes. Of course, a spherical gas bag is not the deal surface for photosynthesis with its low surface area, but it seems like this disadvantage would be more than compensated for. Ballont plants could reach enormous heights/altitudes using vastly less mass than normal plants. In fact, I'm surprised they never evolved on Earth, especially considering that their water equivalent already exists, kelp. Perhaps no lineage of plants on Earth ever evolved to synthesize an appropriate lifting gas for use in air. kelp after all fill their floats with carbon monoxide gas.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5821098719340852065.post-86033608520625295162010-08-29T00:52:12.500+02:002010-08-29T00:52:12.500+02:00Designing Alien plants is pretty tricky. I'm...Designing Alien plants is pretty tricky. I'm generally not satisfied with the plants of speculative biology projects. Too often in an attempt to be alien, they ignore some of the issues that you've mentioned.<br /><br />One area where there's lots of room for innovation is plant reproduction. There's an incredible variety of flowers and fruit/seeds/nuts etc. Nature has lots of outrageous examples, so it's almost hard to think up something more outrageous.<br /><br /><br />If you wanted to incorporate some animal traits, i can imagine plant-like life that has <i>mobile</i> offspring, which scurry off, find a good place to grow and then become sessile. As "adults" trees, bushes, whatever, these might retain some animal traits, though i would expect them mostly to atrophy.j. w. bjerkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06800512284198234202noreply@blogger.com