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| giant carnivorous plants | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 28 2017, 12:42 PM (312 Views) | |
| Cool_Hippo43 | Nov 28 2017, 12:42 PM Post #1 |
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Hippo
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Giant carnivorous plants are not so impossible, are they? A carnivorous plant capable of predating a dog or a baby. Or is it a very impossible idea? |
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| Yiqi15 | Nov 28 2017, 01:05 PM Post #2 |
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Prime Specimen
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It really depends on the type of plant. Plants like pitcher plants and the bromeliad Puya chilensis (which is protocarnivorous and can take sheep) are probably the most likely.
Edited by Yiqi15, Nov 28 2017, 01:05 PM.
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| Beetleboy | Nov 28 2017, 01:11 PM Post #3 |
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neither lizard nor boy nor beetle . . . but a little of all three
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I once created a giant carnivorous plant, the weep trees, which caught their prey using sticky sap exuded from the bark. They didn't catch large prey though, just insects, lizards, and maybe occasionally small birds. I'm still rather fond of the concept. |
| ~ The Age of Forests ~ | |
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| Tartarus | Nov 28 2017, 07:08 PM Post #4 |
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Prime Specimen
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I think the idea could be possible. |
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| Setaceous Cetacean | Nov 28 2017, 10:50 PM Post #5 |
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Insert Funny Creative Title Here
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I was thinking of a giant tree or fungus-like organism from which a vast network of roots spread. These would "smell" out nearby carrion and grow in that direction. Since most of the mass would come from the roots, this organism could be massive. |
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| SpeculativeNebula | Nov 29 2017, 06:20 AM Post #6 |
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Fetus
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Not sure about the plausibility, but I have been working on some sessile organisms for a planet I kind of took a break from working on. They might be interchangeable with plants if you wanted to think up a plant equivalent. One subterrestrial kind manipulates it's environment by displacing soil, creating steep, slippery pits with compacted walls at the bottom of which is the site of digestion. The soil pit basically serves as a crude, temporary stomach. There is a buffer zone between the carnivore and the prey, and the carnivore won't start drinking the muddy, digested soup until after it stops detecting vibrations from the prey. So the prey might be too large for the "plant" to contain, but after a while marinating in the makeshift pit it'll eventually break down into something easy to digest. On the planet I'm working on, they are certainly large enough to trap something human-sized or larger. However I'm only mentioning this as a possibility in hopes someone else might comment on the plausibility of plants being able to do this, because plausibility is something I'm not sure about with this and can't comment on, especially when converting this general idea into plant-form. Edit: I was thinking more about this, and a problem to consider is the potency and quantity of digestive fluid needed to dissolve an organism before it spoils. The bigger it is the less surface area. My guess is not that plausible, but again I'm not very sure. It might also depend on how long it takes the prey to die, though I'd imagine nowhere near as long as it takes to digest. Even snakes take weeks to digest large prey. Edited by SpeculativeNebula, Nov 29 2017, 05:21 PM.
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7:49 PM Jul 10