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
12
votes
11
answers
5k
views
Why would humans carry around live plants in a post-apocalyptic world?
A while ago I saw this brilliant 3d render of a post-apocalyptic world in which a human carries around a live plant in a capsule, connected to the plant via a respirator:
(credit: Stephen Grimm via ...
- 229
12
votes
4
answers
692
views
What kind of environment would lead to dominantly yellow foliage?
I'm looking for various factors; Atmosphere Composition, Type of Sun, etc, whatever would work. That is, of course, if this is even likely/possible. I believe that yellow is generally not an ideal ...
- 121
11
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What would make a plant's leaves razor-sharp?
Imagine a field of plants that when walked through cuts human skin. Unlike a Stinging Nettle, the leaves would have to have razor-like edges, without the trichome hairs. The leaf edges should cause a ...
- 1,583
11
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Big, big, big... beans
I'm trying to find explanations for a strain of beans (or any other food-producing plant) that have become large, maybe as large as most trees, and about as wide in girth, that overgrows countries ...
- 287
11
votes
4
answers
1k
views
How would I go about explaining the science of a world where everything is made of fabrics and craft supplies?
I'm working on a little project called Scrapbook Street where everything is made of fabric and or craft supplies, but while working on the world of the project, I've started to wonder how the world ...
- 113
11
votes
7
answers
584
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?
...
- 662
11
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What kinds of plants could grow near crystals and in (mostly) crystal sands?
Within my desert landscape--in which the climate is similar to the Sonora Desert--there are many canyons, one of which sports large, clustered growths of Elbaite Tourmaline crystals, averaging out at ...
- 2,280
11
votes
1
answer
646
views
Big Green Men... from Earth
There are a couple of stories where humans gain chloroplasts.
Here's a clip from one story:
They are also infused with bacteriorhodopsin, allowing photosynthesis. It is now possible for a human ...
- 6,642
11
votes
1
answer
918
views
Interlocking, ultra-high forest, is it possible?
I was trying to create a world that has extensive massive rain-forests unlike anything on earth where the trees interlock with thick branches to allow them to rise much higher into the air (several ...
- 766
11
votes
2
answers
615
views
Magic that alters living cells - Growing cities out of trees?
This is a question about the same magic explained in this one. I also explain the magic below.
Explanation:
In my fantasy novel, magic is a natural part of the world. It is not some mystical force ...
11
votes
2
answers
556
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 ...
- 769
11
votes
2
answers
541
views
What would the biosphere look like with a constant twilight/midnight sun?
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 the ...
- 971
10
votes
7
answers
3k
views
How would I modify a coffee plant to grow outside the tropics?
To give context, the setting I'm working on is one where advanced genetic engineering and biotechnology are plentiful.
The premise is this, the coffee industry is dominated in the tropics by a cartel ...
- 1,809
10
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Could a plant be engineered to live in a vacuum?
Could an artificial plant species be designed and created that lives in a vacuum - for example on the surface of our moon?
The main problems I can see immediately would be the lack of an atmosphere ...
- 77.2k
10
votes
2
answers
573
views
Plants That Use Chitin in Place of Lignin
What would the appearance and structure of trees be like if they used chitin, instead of lignin, for cell walls? This is assuming that all other properties are basically unchanged.
These trees would ...
- 201
10
votes
2
answers
266
views
What Would it take for Trees with Stone Core to be Self Supporting?
So I have an idea for a biome in which avian humanoids are the dominant intelligent lifeform. They live inside of trees that dwarf the redwoods of our world. The trees grow so tall and so thick (akin ...
- 103
10
votes
1
answer
632
views
Growing crops on a planet orbiting red dwarf
I trying to describe colonization of an Earth Like planet orbiting a red dwarf in its habitable zone.
It is NOT tidally locked with the star
Similar to Earth though somewhat larger
Magnetic field is ...
- 367
9
votes
9
answers
4k
views
What star would cause a planet to have white plants?
Okay, I'm trying to make a planet that has at least part of its surface, or at least part of its underground, habitable for humans (breathable atmosphere at a suitable pressure, a suitable level of ...
- 299
9
votes
5
answers
914
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 ...
- 3,246
9
votes
6
answers
3k
views
Could a plant grow on a building taller than mount Everest?
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 oxygen ...
- 719