eating trees

Jerry Friedman · 03 Apr 2002, 23:50 · from urth-v0204.mbox · original

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From: Jerry Friedman <jerry_friedman at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: (urth) eating trees
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 15:50:29 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <urth-v0204-540 at digest.urth.net>
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--- maa32 <maa32 at dana.ucc.nau.edu> wrote:
> This is primarly for Blattid ( or whoever asked me about "sentience" in=20
> conjunction with the trees).In response to proof that the trees eat
> things: I=20
> can't find it right now (my notes are not with me) but there is a scene
> in On=20
> Blue's Water where Horn is talking about green and says that the trees
> eat=20
> other trees, then he says the strangling female lianas are the scariest
> things=20
> on Green.  It's in the first book.  I'll keep looking for the exact
> quote. =20
> I'm sure some other people remember it.

This proves that the trees on Green are herbivorous, not carnivorous.

...

> Horn also comments about ways of killing the inhumu in Chapter 4: the
> Tale of=20
> Pajarocu, and he states that they decay very rapidly: "These people,
> like=20
> people everywhere here, seem to fear than an inhumu  may live on even
> with its=20
> head severed.  That is not the case, of course; but I cannot help
> wondering=20
> how the superstition originated and became o widespread.  Certainly
> inhumi=20
> have no bones as we understand them.  POSSIBLY their skeletons are
> cartilage,=20
> as those of some sea-creatures are.  On Green, Geier maintained that the
>=20
> inhumi are akin to slugs and leeches.  No one, I believe, took him
> seriously;=20
> yet it is certain that once dead they decay very quickly, though they
> are=20
> difficult to kill and can survive for weeks and even months without the
> blood=20
> that is their ONLY food."(62)

Interesting.  Horn himself told us about Patera Quetzal's eating or=20
drinking beef tea.  Was it just for comfort, not nutrition?

> Doesn't this schema of the inhumu seem=20
> derivative of a hardy vegetable system: survive wihtout all their limbs,
> need=20
> food every couple of months, may have a keratin cell wall, and decay
> very=20
> quickly?

There's nothing about suriving without all of their limbs unless
you believe that Silkhorn is mistaken.  Also, keratin is an animal
protein--the one fingernails, hair, and Horn are made of, but not
the one cartilage is made of--and quite different from cellulose,
the carbohydrate that plants' cell walls are made of.

> Perhaps at one time the early inhumu could survive if you cut off=20
> their heads: and plants can certainly do that if their upper extremities
> are=20
> removed.  Another argument for low-g is that the inhumu have weak, weak
> legs.

I believe flying animals often have weaker legs than non-flying
animals.
...

Jerry Friedman

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--=20

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