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Reminds me of a semi-plausible mechanism for carnivorous flora from this [0] Worldbuilding Stack Exchange answer by ckersch: > Bonegrass is a white fungus whic
by jcalx 1y ago
Reminds me of a semi-plausible mechanism for carnivorous flora from this [0] Worldbuilding Stack Exchange answer by ckersch:
> Bonegrass is a white fungus which grows in wheat fields. Most of the time, the bonegrass fields are normal wheat fields, indistinguishable from other wheat fields except for their exceptionally high yields and relatively low numbers of animal inhabitants. Of course, this entices lots of animals, large and small, to move into the area. Populations boom, fueled by the seemingly unnatural abundance of the wheat.
> And then the bonegrass blooms. Overnight, huge mycelial mats below the wheat fields become active, with white fungal growths growing up the stalks of the wheat plants, using their stalks for support. Then, simultaneously across hundreds of square miles, the bonegrass releases its paralytic spores. Within 12 hours, the wheat fields become pale, white places of death. The fungus then begins to grow over the paralyzed creatures, flooding their body with neurotoxins that keep them immobilized until they die from dehydration over the next few days.
> The dead animals quickly break down, broken apart by the fungus. As suddenly as the bonegrass grew, it will then die back, shrinking back beneath the earth, where it will slumber as the land above it slowly repopulates, drawn by the seeming gaia above the soil, and unaware of the horrors slumbering beneath...
Scary stuff. Symbiotic plant-fungi or plant-bacteria relationships seem like plausible mechanisms for "carnivorous" plants, even if it's not "plants directly eating people" a la Little Shop of Horrors. There are more good answers with a similar premise under the same SE question.
[0] https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/38354/how-often-must-carnivorous-grassland-eat https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/38354/how-...
- halflife 1y agoIf you liked this you should watch the animated series Scavengers Reign. It’s about astronauts crash landing in an alien planet, where the flora and fauna have a symbiotic relationship, and what happens when humans appear. Fantastic show.