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How to Create an Alien Ecosystem: Plant Edition

Part 1: How to Plan Your Alien System

Hello and thank you for joining me on this new series!

Some of you will remember my Alien Ecosystem series, where we designed a complex and sophisticated ecosystem of alien animals. This is a parallel to it where we're going to do the same process, but with plants. I'm going to make a plant ecosystem for my Kaleida project so tha we have an example to work with. If you like, follow along and make one for your own world! I'm going to assume an Earth-like world but this project can be adapted for non-Earthlike worlds.

Ori and the Blind Forest fanart.
Ori and the Blind Forest fanart by NezuPanda.

Now, we’re only one paragraph in and I already have an apology to make, because this process is going to be a tad harder than it was for the animal ecosystem. Plants don’t tend to interact with other plants as much as animals do with other animals, mainly because most plants don’t have a predator/prey relationship with other plants (although there are exceptions). Because of this, it's going to be harder to define what plants 'do', and by extension how they mesh as an ecosystem.

Another reason that working on plants will be harder is that humans tend to recognise plants in terms of their usefulness, not as something to observe acting independently of us: most of us have spent more time watching documentaries about lions hunting wildebeeste than we have watching mistletoe feeding off apple trees. Plants provide us with food, medicine, building materials, and all sorts of other resources, and some are effective at soaking up and holding pollutants, but these uses are generally irrelevant to the plants themselves - again, with some exceptions. Some grasses, such as wheat, have very effectively manipulated humans into supporting their survival.

A mouse sitting on a lemon.
A mouse sitting on a lemon by BlueCentaurea. Cute, don't you agree?

I will refer to these uses so that we can recognise some of the plants we talk about during this series, but in short, the usefulness of plants is not a helpful basis for organising an ecosystem. We will look at Earth’s real-world plant ecosystem and give it a few twists to help inspire us.

Aside from all of this, I’m going to make sure that working on your alien plant system is fun! Plants are not just green and brown things that stick out of the ground. They’re ingenious, manipulative, determined, and sometimes downright horrifying. They use and abuse animals and their environments to the very best of their ability, and sometimes they are incredibly adept at that. If you have any doubts about there, here are a few video clips showcasing the things plants can do, narrated by David Attenborough.


Establishing our Classes

We have another minor issue to address: plant taxonomy is slightly different from animal taxonomy. The top level of taxonomy for plants is the Kingdom Plantae, just like the Kingdom Animalia is for animals. However, instead of Orders, plants have an extra level known as Divisions, and then they move on to Class and Order.

The Divisions are algae, mosses, liverworts, horsetails, ferns, conifers, gingko, and flowering plants. Let's look at those in more detail.


Algae

There are seven main Orders of algae. I don’t expect the worldbuilders among you to find these particularly interesting, but I’d like to mention them briefly here because algae is a vital part of a healthy environment in the real world.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Green algae (Chlorophyta)

Mostly live in fresh water. Can live on land, including deserts and hypersaline environments. Can engage in symbiotic relationships with other life-forms. Useful source of food for many aquatic animals and for oxygenation of fresh water.

Sea lettuce, watermelon snow

Red algae (Rhodophyta)

Prefer salt water to fresh water. No terrestrial species, probably due to an evolutionary bottleneck. Play a major role in oxygenation of the ocean. Useful source of food for animals.

Irish moss, dulse, nori

Euglenoids (Euglenophyta)

Single-celled. Create blooms in bodies of water. Important for oxygenation of water.

Golden-brown algae and Diatoms (Chrysophyta)

Mostly lives in fresh water.

Fire algae (Pyrrophyta)

Single-celled. Some species are bioluminescent. Some species create red tides. Can also contain neurotoxins and deplete oxygen in the water, which can kill fish.

Sea of Stars

Brown algae (Paeophyta)

Oxygenates water and provides food and shelter for many animals.

Giant kelp, many other brown seaweeds

Yellow-green algae (Xanthophyta)

Single-celled. Mostly fresh water but can live in salt water and in soil.

The main takeaways here are that algae oxygenate water and form the start of many food chains, but that they can also be toxic. They are capable of introducing colour to landscapes. Some types also contain yellow or red carotinoids, so these can influence the colour of some animals further down the food chain.


Mosses

Moss is another Division of plants that you may not find interesting, but I’ll briefly cover the important points.

Mosses are small plants that grow in clumps or mats. They prevent soil erosion and hold - and gradually relese - water like a sponge. Despite their humble stature they can richly colour environments.

Generally, mosses are excellent for producing clement conditions for more complex life so if your world has a lot of life, it's likely to have mosses - or at least something like them. Because of moss' sponge-like qualities it tends to soak up pollutants as well as water, which means it can have a cleansing effect on contaminated environments - a nice, or perhaps nasty, little detail for anyone with a dystopia.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Mosses (Brophyta)

Small flowerless plants that grow in clump or mats. Known for being terrestrial but can be aquatic.

Spagnum moss, pincushion moss, springy turf moss


Liverworts

This is another Division we can mostly gloss over, mainly because liverworts behave in such a similar way to mosses that as worldbuilders, we can more or less consider them interchangeable. The most notable difference is that liverworts have leaf-like growths while mosses do not.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Liverworts (Hepatophyta)

Similar to mosses, but with flatter leaves.


Horsetails

Horsetails play an understated yet important role in the support of life. I can also tell you that they can look pretty lush, if that’s a look you’re going for!

They're essentially hangovers from the Cretaceous period so qualify as “living fossils”, and that’s a phrase you’re going to see from time to time in this series.

Horsetails benefit life by providing habitat and food for insects and small animals, both on land and in water.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Horsetails (Equisetophyta)

Identifiable root, leaf and stem systems. Produce spores to reproduce. Often have a distinctive brush-like appearance.


Flower Fae Aphid Predator.
Fantasy aphid predator sitting on a fern. by thedancingemu.

Ferns

Like horsetails, ferns remain more or less unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs. They provide food and habitat for animals, but less so for humans, who mostly find them less appetising than many other plants.

They can play an important role in the re-wilding of damaged environments by being among the first plants to grow, which allows for animals to start populating the area.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Ferns (Pteridophyta)

As for horsetails, but they produce leaves.


Conifers

Conifers are excellent survivors in dry conditions, which is a symptom of their ancestry: conifers evolved because they were far more water-independent than the other plants that were around at the time. They are also capable of tolerating windy environments, and grow waxy needles instead of leaves to reduce water loss and to reduce wind-resistance in storms.

Conifers provide animals with habitat and a certain amount of food in the form of their cones, which contain their seeds. However, the amount of food they produce is relatively limited: they do not produce nuts or nectar, and only a few produce berries. Most of the food they 'provide' is insects, which eat various parts of coniferous plants.

They can also effectively take over entire biomes as their needles tend to discourage other species from growing. For this reason, they may create a relatively poor living environment for animals when compared with non-coniferous forests, or will produce a vertebrate ecosystem based on the consumption of insects more so than the consumption of plant matter.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Conifers (Coniferophyta)

Shrubs and trees adapted to tolerate water loss, and produce seeds within cones. Non-flowering. Tolerant of water loss. Grow needles instead of leaves.

Pine, spruce, fir, cedar, juniper, yew, monkey puzzle tree, redwood, hemlock


Gingko

This Division has only one living member, the gingko biloba. It's another living fossil. As such they do not give anything to the ecosystem besides oxygen and habitant to animals that are adaptable to living in any type of tree.

Its original seed distributors no longer exist. Badgers like their fruits, but other species either can't get into them or don't appear to like the smell.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Gingko (Gingkophyta)

Gingko biloba


Flowering Plants

Flowering plants produce fruit and seeds, and many species are attractive to humans. Because of this, this Division has produced a large number of species that are easily recognisable to us.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Flowering Plants (Magnoliophyta)

Land-based plants that produce seeds that are protected by fruits. The most diverse group.

See part 2 (link at bottom of post).

Winter dragon among stylised willows.
Winter dragon among stylised willows by drachenmagier.

I believe that if you are planning to develop an alien plant ecosystem then you are probably going to focus mostly on this Division, so in part 2 I will write a table of the different Orders so that we can make sense of those.

Despite their relatively familiar qualities, many of the flowering plant Orders are either nondescript, have technical descriptions that are impractical for us worldbuilders, or are too diverse from one species to another for me to write crisp descriptions of each Order. As a result we will need to work with reduced information and avoid using some Orders, but we can still do it.


Making Our Own Alien Divisions

For now, I want to come up with my own Divisions, and then we can start to work on our Orders. Below is a recap of the information we have so far, with information added about how they reproduce - we'll need all the information we can get in this process, and reproduction mode will help.

Division

Defining Features

Algae

Oxygenate water. Symbiote with all sorts of other life. Reproduction using a mix of sexual reproduction, asexual using cell division, and asexual using spores

Mosses

Prevent soil erosion, asexual reproduction using spores

Liverworts

Prevent soil erosion, asexual reproduction using gemmae (similar to spores)

Horsetails

Brush-like, sexual reproduction using spores

Ferns

Sexual reproduction using spores

Conifers

Hardy in dry and windy conditions, almost fruitless, needles instead of leaves, sexual reproduction using cones

Gingko

Sexual reproduction using pollen

Flowering Plants

Possess flowers, produce fruits, sexual reproduction using pollen

Other characteristics such as production of oxygen, and providing food and habitat for animals, are universal throughout all of these Divisions so I did not include those.

Now we simplify the list and switch these characteristics into different Divisions. For the basis of my plant ecosystem I’m going to amalgamate the mosses and liverworts, remove the Gingko, and give the horsetails and ferns a free pass because I love the way they look. That gives us:

Division

Defining Features

Algae

Oxygenate water. Symbiote with all sorts of other life. Reproduction using a mix of sexual reproduction, asexual using cell division, and asexual using spores

Mosses/Liverworts

Prevent soil erosion, asexual reproduction using spores or gemmae

Horsetails

Pretty. Brush-like, sexual reproduction using spores

Ferns

Pretty. Leafy, sexual reproduction using spores

Conifers

Hardy in dry and windy conditions, almost fruitless, needles instead of leaves, sexual reproduction using cones

Flowering Plants

Possess flowers, produce fruits, sexual reproduction using pollen

A note on spores: plants that reproduce using spores work a little bit differently to ones that reproduce using seeds. Wikipedia has a decent explanation if needed.

So if I mix these characteristics up like I did with the animal ecosystem, here’s what I get:

Division

Defining Features

Algae

Possess flowers, produce fruits, sexual reproduction using pollen

Mosses/Liverworts

Pretty. Leafy, sexual reproduction using spores

Horsetails

Oxygenate water. Symbiote with all sorts of other life. Reproduction using a mix of sexual reproduction, asexual using cell division, and asexual using spores

Ferns

Hardy in dry and windy conditions, almost fruitless, needles instead of leaves, sexual reproduction using cones

Conifers

Prevent soil erosion, asexual reproduction using spores or gemmae

Flowering Plants

Pretty. Brush-like, sexual reproduction using spores

I'm happy enough with this list. These are no longer real-world Divisions so calling them by their real-world names will potentially get confusing, so our next task is to give them names! In the animal ecosystem series I used a technique for creating exotic-sounding names, but this time I’m just going to give mine descriptive, recognisable names to reflect their new characteristics:

Old Name

New Name

Algae

Waterflowers (since the flowers and fruits will be generally submerged)

Mosses/Liverworts

Rugplants (because whatever they look like, I suspect they’ll cover a lot of ground)

Horsetails

Bonded plants (because they’re prone to getting into symbiotic relationships with other life forms)

Ferns

Eccentrics (because they grow in environments other plants can't handle, and don’t mingle with animals as much as other plants do)

Conifers

Lace-roots (because they prevent soil erosion which I think they can do with extensive root systems)

Flowering Plants

Witch herbs (they’re pretty, so as such they’re bewitching)


Tower with draping foliage.
When you have your plant ecosystem worked out, you can decide how it interacts with the rest of your world, like this tower. Photography by ElenaDudina, location is Parque de Atracciones from Madrid, Spain.

Now that we have jumbled descriptions and names to go with them, let's firm up our new Divisions by writing brief descriptions of their qualities:

Waterflowers
(combination of flowing plants and algae. Produce fruit as food for bigger animals. Reproduce via flowers, fruits, and seeds.)
Waterflower plants grow in both salt and fresh water. Flowers, fruit, and seeds are often submerged and are adapted for this. Fruits are common, diverse in appearance. Produces nectar in forms that allow it to be collected underwater.

Rugplants
(combination of ferns and mosses. Not too helpful to life but pretty. Reproduce via spores.)
Tiny plants underfoot that come in a dazzling array of miniscule leaf shapes, some of which tessellate and make the ground look visually stunning. They never produce fruit or seeds.

Bonded plants
(combination of algae and horsetails. Oxygenate water, create habitat in water, can be toxic. Reproduce via a range of methods)
Bonded plants fill the oceans, fresh water lakes, and rivers of Kaleida. They work hard for the ecosystem, doing a solid portion of the work of oxygenating the water to make it habitable for animals, and providing opportunities for symbiosis with many fungi, protozoa, and zooplankton. The occasional species goes rogue and produces toxins. They are often single-celled, never produce fruit or seeds, and instead either sub-divide or produce spores.

Eccentrics
(combination of conifers and ferns. Fast-growing and tough. Produce cones)
Few plants can survive in tough conditions as well as eccentrics. They stand resolute and proud in extreme dry environments – both hot and cold – and on mountainsides where they are torn at every day by feral winds. Few other plants can grow near them, partly due to their sheer hardiness and partly thanks to the eccentrics’ ability to discourage them. Animals can live among them but don't tend to find much food to eat, but a few species do make a living in such places. Their cones provide animals with food, as do a few small berries.

Lace-roots
(combination of mosses/liverworts and conifers. Hold soil together and reproduce using spores)
Many lace-roots stand tall on land, but their main contribution to the world of Kaleida is to hold the very soil together and to help keep it hydrated by holding onto water like a sponge. They do this by growing extensive and very fine root systems. This assures the stability of the soil. Seedless and fruitless, they instead release spores.

Witch herbs
(combination of horsetails and flowering plants. Water-oxygenation, produce spores. Spores may look attention-grabbing, even pretty)
Witch herbs perform the same basic functions as any other plant: oxygenation of the air and provision of habitat and food for animals. Aside from this, they tend to be attractive to look at for any creature capable of aesthetic appreciation of plants - especially their sporophytes. They prefer to grow in bodies of water or in consistently wet environments.


Okay! Those descriptions are a little bit thin on the ground, but I’m happy with them for now. In part 2 we’ll look at the Flower Plant Orders that we're going to work with, and share them out across these Divisions.


Credits

Title image by NezuPanda and used with their kind permission.