Preliminary theories of the forest:
the abundant ultraviolet from Staurn's sun makes plant chemistry unusually energetic;
those trees need a particular mineral so a wood appears whenever faulting exposes a vein;
geology is faster on bigger planets so maybe this form of life can depend on geological accidents;
or maybe bacteria deposit organic material that is exposed fairly often;
the trees could broadcast spores that lie dormant for centuries;
the spores sprout and consume the deposits;
the forest must keep moving because it exhausts the soil where it stands;
sunlight gets the trees moving;
when they exhaust a vein, they die and their reprocessed material wakens the spores that they have left.
5 comments:
Hi, Paul!
I'm reminded of JRR Tolkien's Ents and huorns, that we see in THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Except that the Walking Forest of Staurn is science fictional, rather than fantasy.
Sean
Sean,
Exactly. Anderson explains. Heim comments, "I've GOT to believe that thing is natural." (p. 111)
Paul.
Hi, Paul!
Exactly! In SF something like the Walking Forest of Staurn HAS to have at least a pretense of a scientific explanation, else THE STAR FOX would not be SF. Needless to say, I enjoy both kinds of literature, SF and F, as long as it's done well.
Sean
Another SF story with something like a walking forest was "Day of the Triffids".
Kaor, Jim!
A story which I read long ago.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment