All Questions
138
questions
59
votes
12
answers
17k
views
Is a man-eating plant realistic?
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 of ...
- 2,939
50
votes
8
answers
29k
views
Can plants survive without animals?
Could a world with no animals whatsoever (not even insects, no humans, etc) still have plant life? These plants do not have to include all the plants in our world, or even any of the same plants. I ...
- 3,530
43
votes
9
answers
21k
views
Could a plant grow on a restrained, living human?
My question is:
Could a macroscopic (e.g. visible) plant grow on a living human, provided that the human is completely immobilized?
- 6,305
42
votes
24
answers
9k
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 ...
- 603
40
votes
10
answers
6k
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
...
- 6,778
39
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What would be the evolutionary advantage for plants to be bioluminescent?
As fas as I know, there isn't a single plant on Earth that (naturally) produces any sort of luminescence. But it is seen in science-fiction worlds, especially Avatar.
From an evolutionary point of ...
- 12.5k
38
votes
8
answers
7k
views
Are diamond berries possible?
Diamonds are carbon. Plants take in CO2 and use the carbon. Chemically, could the right kind of plant have diamonds for berries, or is there some other limiting factor?
- 2,118
34
votes
8
answers
6k
views
What environment would make leaves light blue?
What environmental effects (if any) would ever cause blue to be a colour that a plant would choose as an evolutionary advantage?
Bonus:
I'm looking for light blue plants as a preference.
EDIT:
...
- 3,144
30
votes
8
answers
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 ...
30
votes
3
answers
4k
views
How tall can a tree grow?
In my fantasy world I want fantastically large trees, particularly in the height category. The tallest trees on earth grow just over 100 meters tall. Why can't they get taller? What circumstances ...
- 13.8k
29
votes
13
answers
6k
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 ...
- 14.9k
26
votes
14
answers
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 ...
- 1,465
25
votes
8
answers
4k
views
Learning a new language without any reference
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 month ...
- 251
25
votes
7
answers
10k
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 ...
- 11.9k
24
votes
3
answers
4k
views
What colour is the foliage if the sky is violet?
This question on Physics.SE asks whether other colors are possible for the sky.
I would like my planet to be inhabitable by normal humans. It has 768 days and they are living in a temperate/...
- 1,357
24
votes
5
answers
7k
views
Could plants develop intelligence?
I know the idea seems a bit far fetched but it's something I believe is common is science fiction and fantasy stories. I remember the talking trees of Zelda: Ocarina of time and of course, Tolkien's ...
- 16.8k
23
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Can you naturally grow houses?
I'm Worldbuilding, and in my world, people can grow houses from seeds. My world is not a Fantasy one. Could this theoretically work, and if so, how?
(Images by Finnian MacManus)
To start the growth ...
- 249
20
votes
17
answers
6k
views
How can plants reliably intentionally poison those that eat their fruit?
For sake of metaphor, I want to include a plant that bears fruit that is poisonous, with the intent that when an animal eats it, it will walk away and die within a few hours, such that their corpse ...
- 386
20
votes
11
answers
4k
views
Plants to ravage tanks with
In my previous question, it was quite well established that tanks were basically superior to walkers in every way.
So, lets even the playing field. I've been contemplating several ways of doing so, ...
- 5,966
19
votes
5
answers
3k
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 ...
- 14.9k
19
votes
5
answers
7k
views
What is the limiting factor for a plant's growth?
This question is about big trees that can contain an entire city.
So generally speaking:
What limits a plant's size, anything from a tree to a flowering plant?
What environment needs to exist for ...
- 3,144
18
votes
7
answers
3k
views
What challenges must oceanic plant life overcome in order to create a mat on top of the ocean?
The ocean of my very earth-like planet is covered in its entirety by vegetation, forming a kind of carpet on top of the water's surface. This free-floating halophyte is a superorganism formed by ...
- 10.7k
16
votes
9
answers
3k
views
Why do the plants glow?
On this planet, volcanoes are constantly spewing ash, polluting the already dense atmosphere and darkening the world. In addition, the star which this planet orbits is dimmer, resulting in a very dark ...
- 1,397
16
votes
8
answers
9k
views
How large would a tree need to be to provide oxygen for 100 people?
The idea is that a population of beings have a superior claim over others for the privilege of oxygenated air in a city/large settlement.
I wanted to make this work that the other residents in the ...
- 177
16
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What effect would a radical gravity change have on plants and fungus?
In relation to this question, what would plants do if they were taken from their environment to another gravity level, in particular zero g.
For example would the daisy manage to grow higher ...
- 3,144
15
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Where do mushroom forests thrive?
Lichen are a symbiotic organism that involves algae or cyanobacteria living inside a fungus. The algae produce energy through photosynthesis, while the fungus protect the algae from the environment ...
- 85.6k
14
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Could a fungus fuse itself to a living creature and how could the creature pass this on?
Behold, a crocodile. The only thing that they have to worry about is hunger when they cannot catch a meal, and camouflage that is better than the eyes of their prey. What if a species of mushroom ...
- 418
14
votes
3
answers
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 ...
- 953
13
votes
5
answers
2k
views
Why would mushroom-like flora prefer to use a calcium carbonate skeleton instead of a chitin one?
I want to create a world for my colonists that's bleak and unwelcoming as well as alien and strange.
So to that end I wanted to make mushroom-like fungi the major flora on the planet. I've read Where ...
- 2,462
13
votes
6
answers
1k
views
How could a large spherical plant heat air inside to fly?
In another question, Are flying plants possible?, a point was raised that because of the square-cube law, a large, hollow, spherical plant could fly by having the air inside be a little bit hotter ...
- 2,193