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How to Create an Alien Ecosystem: Plant Edition

Part 2: Creating Potential For Our Species

Dragon in lily pond.
A dragon in a lily pond. Art by cordiceps.

In the last part of this series we established our own set of Divisions as the basis for our alien plant ecosystem. Now we need to divide the plant Orders between them, to give ourselves more inspiration. For reference my Divisions are:

Waterflowers
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. Produce nectar in forms that allow it to be collected underwater.

Rugplants
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
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
Few plants can survive in tough conditions as well as eccentrics. They stand resolute and proud in extreme dry – hot and cold – and on mountainsides, 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. Even animals don’t seem to enjoy the habitats that eccentric forests create as much as non-eccentric ones, 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
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
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.


Dividing the Orders

A sliced lemon.
A citrus fruit, a member of the flowering plants division. Art by LestonBuell.

Like I said in part 1, the plant Orders are far less easy to distinguish cleanly than animal Orders: many Orders are filled with very diverse species, and many of the differences that do exist within an Order are not easily observable to non-botanists. I’ve researched and made notes on each Order as well as I can but some may still feel quite sparse.

I’m going to take green algae, red algae, brown algae, and fire algae (the four algae Orders I think are interesting and useful enough to use in this process), and put those under my Flowering Plants Class.

So let’s get started with classification!

Here is a list of all the Flowering Plant Orders. I’ve crossed out any that have too little detail for us to work with easily.

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Acorales

Prefer wetlands; flowers have a spadix (a distinctive long, thick central part)

Sweet flags

Alismatales

Stem is corm or rhizome. Grow in aquatic and marine areas. Some are completely submerged.

Seagrasses, Titan arum, Swiss cheese plant

Amborella

No distinct description

Parsley (Apiales)

No distinct description

Carrots, celery, parsley, ivy

Aquifoliales

No distinct description

Holly

Palm (Arecales)

No distinct description

Palm tree, coconut, acai

Asparagales

Tight rosettes of leaves are common

Onion, garlic, leek, asparagus, saffron croci, aloe vera, iris, orchids, daffodils, bluebell, spider plant

Daisy (Asterales)

No distinct description

Sunflower, daisy, lettuce, southernwood, wormwood, ecinacea, thistle

Austrobaileyales

Grow as trees, shrubs, and lianas

Lianas, star anise

Berberidopsidales

Woody evergreens

Boraginales

No distinct description

Cabbage (Brassicales)

Cabbages, mustards, papaya, capers, nasturtiums, radish, beetroot

Bruniales

No distinct description

Buxales

Shrubs and trees. Good source of ornamental plants and trees. Male flowers are distinct from one female

Common box

Canellales

No distinct description

Caryophyllales

Many are succulent.

Cacti, carnations, spinach, beets, Venus fly traps, rhubarb, sundews, purslane

Celastrales

No distinct description

Ceratophyllaceae

Mainly found in ponds, marshes, and small streams

Coontails and hornworts

Chloranthaceae

Woody or 'weak' woody shrubs and trees. Fragrant. Small, petal-less flowers.

Commelinales

Grow via rhizomes

Cornales

Flowers have four separate petals, fruits are fleshy, most plants are woody

Crossosomatales

Tube-shaped flowers

Cucurbitales

Mostly tropical

Gourds, squashes, pumpkins, melons, cucumber

Dilleniales

Tropical and subtropical

Dioscoreales

Forest floor plants

Yams, source of steroids

Dipsacales

No distinct description

Honeysuckle, elder, valerian

Ericales

Showy flowers, often 5-petalled

Tea, blueberry, brazil nut, azalea, kiwi fruit, rhodedendron, heather

Escalloniaceae

No distinct description

Euphorbiales

No distinct description

Rubber tree

Bean (Fabales)

Plants produce pods.

Legumes, kudzu, four-leaf clover, wisteria, acacia

Fagales

Contains some of the best known trees in the world. No distinct description

Birch, beech, walnut

Garryales

Evergreen woody plants

Gentianales

No distinct description

Coffee

Geraniales

5-petalled flowers

Gunnerales

No distinct description

Gunnera

Huerteales

No distinct description

Icacinales

No distinct description

Mint (Lamiales)

No distinct description

Lavender, lilac, olive, jasmine, ash tree, teak, snapdragon, sesame, sage, mint, basil, rosemary, blue jacaranda

Laurales

Tropical and subtropical, mostly trees and shrubs

Cinnamon, avocado

Liliales

Mostly perennial with corms and rhizomes. Flowers are ornamental

Lily, tulip

Magnoliales

Trees and shrubs with simple leaves

Custard apples, magnolia, nutmeg, dandelion, dragon’s blood tree, oak, heliconia

Malpighiales

One of the largest orders. Toothed leaves.

Willow, violet, poinsietta, coca plant, passionfruit

Malvaceae

No distinct description

Balsa, cacao, kola, baobab, cotton, rafflesia flower, passion flower

Metteniusaceae

No distinct description

Myrtle (Myrtales)

These plants prefer a warmer climate

Pomegranates, Fuschia, eucalyptus tree

Nymphaeales

Aquatic plants with rhizomes, large flowers, and broad leaves

Water lilies, giant water lily

Oxalidales

No distinct description

Pitcher plant, wood sorrel

Pandanales

Mainly tropical plants, big and small

Paracryphiaceae

No distinct description

Petrosaviaceae

Prefers high elevation habitats

Picramniaceae

Bark tastes bitter

Pepper (Piperales)

Tiny, densely packed flowers with no petals

Black pepper

Grass (Poales)

Small flowers, single seed leaf, rely on wind pollination

Grasses, wheat, bullrush, bamboo, bromeliad

Proteales

No distinct description

Ranunculales

No distinct description

Buttercup, poppy, bleeding heart

Rose (Rosales)

Petals are separate from one another, few other details about the characteristics of the flowers

Rose, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, apple, pear, plum, peach, apricot, almond, fig, nettle, hop, cannabis, ficus

Santalales

All Families are parasitic to some degree

Sapindales

Woody everything – trees, shrubs, and climbers

Citrus, maple, mango, cashew, frankinsense, myrrh, mahogany, horse chestnut (conkers), poison ivy (not a true ivy), poison oak (not a true oak)

Saxifragales

No distinct description

Peony

Solanales

No distinct description

Aubergine/eggplant, potato, tomato, belladonna, chilli pepper, tobacco, sweet potato, morning glory

Trochodendraceae

Flowers have no petals and no scent

Vahlia

No distinct description

Vitaceae

Woody, mostly tendril-bearing vines. Some plants are parasitic

Grapes

Zingiberales

Well developed stamens

Bird of paradise flower, bananas, ginger, cardamom, turmeric

Zygophyllales

No distinct description

Now to divide the remaining Orders equally between my different Divisions!


Waterflowers

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Parsley (Apiales)

No distinct description

Carrots, celery, parsley, ivy

Cabbage (Brassicales)

No distinct description

Cabbages, mustards, papaya, capers, nasturtiums, radish, beetroot

Crossosomatales

Tube-shaped flowers

Bean (Fabales)

Plants produce pods

Legumes, kudzu, four-leaf clover, wisteria, acacia

Gunnerales

No distinct description

Gunnera

Mint (Lamiales)

No distinct description

Lavender, lilac, olive, jasmine, ash tree, teak, snapdragon, sesame, sage, mint, basil, rosemary, blue jacaranda

Myrtle (Myrtales)

These plants prefer a warmer climate

Pomegranates, Fuschia, eucalyptus tree

Rose (Rosales)

Petals are separate from one another, few other details about the characteristics of the flowers

Rose, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, apple, pear, plum, peach, apricot, almond, fig, nettle, hop, cannabis, ficus

Rugplants

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Aquifoliales

No distinct description

Holly

Buxales

Shrubs and trees. Good source of ornamental plants and trees. Male flowers are distinct from one female

Common box

Cucurbitales

Mostly tropical

Gourds, squashes, pumpkins, melons, cucumber

Fagales

Contains some of the best known trees in the world. No distinct description

Birch, beech, walnut

Laurales

Tropical and subtropical, mostly trees and shrubs

Cinnamon, avocado

Malvaceae

No distinct description

Balsa, cacao, kola, baobab, cotton, rafflesia flower, passion flower

Nymphaeales

Aquatic plants with rhizomes, large flowers, and broad leaves

Water lily, giant water lily

Santalales

All Families are parasitic to some degree

Mistletoe

Vitaceae

Woody, mostly tendril-bearing vines. Some plants are parasitic

Grape

Bonded Plants

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Palm (Arecales)

No distinct description

Palm tree, coconut, acai

Caryophyllales

Many are succulent

Cacti, carnations, spinach, beets, Venus fly traps, rhubarb, sundews, purslane

Dioscoreales

Forest floor plants

Yams, source of steroids

Liliales

Mostly perennial with corms and rhizomes. Flowers are ornamental

Lily, tulip

Oxalidales

No distinct description

Pitcher plant, wood sorrel

Ranunculales

No distinct description

Buttercup, poppy, bleeding heart

Sapindales

Woody everything – trees, shrubs, and climbers

Citrus, maple, mango, cashew, frankinsense, myrrh, mahogany, horse chestnut (conkers), poison ivy (not a true ivy), poison oak (not a true oak)

Zingiberales

Well developed stamens

Bird of paradise flower, bananas, ginger, cardamom, turmeric

Eccentrics

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Asparagales

Tight rosettes of leaves are common

Onion, garlic, leek, asparagus, saffron croci, aloe vera, iris, orchids, daffodils, bluebell, spider plant

Ceratophyllaceae

Mainly found in ponds, marshes, and small streams

Coontails and hornworts

Dipsacales

No distinct description

Honeysuckle, elder, valerian

Gentianales

No distinct description

Coffee

Magnoliales

Trees and shrubs with simple leaves

Custard apples, magnolia, nutmeg, dandelion, dragon’s blood tree, oak, heliconia

Pepper (Piperales)

Tiny, densely packed flowers with no petals

Black pepper

Saxifragales

No distinct description

Peony

Trochodendraceae

Flowers have no petals and no scent

Lace-roots

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Acorales

Prefer wetlands; flowers have a spadix (a distinctive long, thick central part)

Sweet flags

Daisy (Asterales)

No distinct description

Sunflower, daisy, lettuce, southernwood, wormwood, ecinacea, thistle

Chloranthaceae

Woody or 'weak' woody shrubs and trees. Fragrant. Small, petal-less flowers.

Ericales

Showy flowers, often 5-petalled

Tea, blueberry, brazil nut, azalea, kiwi fruit, rhodedendron, heather

Geraniales

5-petalled flowers

Malpighiales

One of the largest orders. Toothed leaves.

Willow, violet, poinsietta, coca plant, passionfruit

Grass (Poales)

Small flowers, single seed leaf, rely on wind pollination

Grasses, wheat, bullrush, bamboo, bromeliad

Solanales

No distinct description

Aubergine/eggplant, potato, tomato, belladonna, chilli pepper, tobacco, sweet potato, morning glory

Witch Herbs

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

Brown algae (Paeophyta)

Oxygenates water and provides food and shelter for many animals

Giant kelp, many other brown seaweeds

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

plus...

Order

Description

Best Known Species

Alismatales

Stem is corm or rhizome. Grow in aquatic and marine areas. Some are completely submerged.

Seagrasses, Titan arum, Swiss cheese plant

Austrobaileyales

Grow as trees, shrubs, and lianas

Lianas, star anise

Cornales

Flowers have four separate petals, fruits are fleshy, most plants are woody

Euphorbiales

No distinct description

Rubber tree


Making Initial Notes on Orders

Next we need to look at each Order and cross-reference it with the Division we have placed it under, and write any detail we can about what that Order would probably be like in terms of its appearance and behaviour. By the time we're done, our Orders should look different from their real-world counterparts and we'll have the beginnings of our alien plants.

Below are my initial notes for my own alien plants. I’ve included my Division notes for reference as they will help to guide us. Wherever there are no physical descriptions of an Order for me to follow I've written "No distinct description yet". We can fill in some details for those at a later stage. If you're following along with this process, good luck - this part is fun but can take a while!


Glowing rose.
A glowing rose. Imagine the potential of stylised art like this using your own alien plants! Art by foxylady6.

Waterflowers

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. Produce nectar in forms that allow it to be collected underwater.

Parsleys (Apiales)
No distinct description yet.

Cabbages (Brassicales)
No distinct description yet.

Crossosomatales
These plants produce long, tube or trumpet-shaped flowers.

Beans (Fabales)
Most plants in this Order produce submerged pods of various sizes.

Gunnera
The leaves on this are huge!

Mints (Lamiales)
No distinct description yet.

Myrtles (Myrtales)
These plants are found in warmer waters, both salt and fresh.

Roses (Rosales)
The flowers of this Order have petals that grow separate from one another.


Rugplants

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.

Aquifoliales
No distinct description yet.

Buxales
These feel less like a bed of springy leaves and more like a woody pincushion. Their sporophytes look distinctive.

Melons (Cucurbitales)
These rugplants tend to creep. Particularly large sporophytes.

Fagales
Woody structures within these rugplants make them feel strange underfoot. Small animals and insects can find more space underneath these as the woody stems create more space for them.

Laurales
I’m starting to get a lot of these ‘woody’ ones which I'll look into more later down the line. Some species have aromatic bark that you can stimulate by walking on it.

Malvaceae
No distinct description yet.

Nymphaeales
Rugplants in this group stretch out over fresh water. Care must be taken not to walk on it as it can give if you are heavy enough (and if you’re a sophisticated enough being to be able to read this, you almost certainly are).

Santalales
These rugplants grow on other plants, and some grow on animals, and feed off them.

Vitaceae
This Order is also woody, and creeps. Some plants are parasitic, grow woody stems, and creep. These can make for a nasty infestation.


Palm trees on an island.
Another picture of real-world plants, but imagine what your alien oases might look like! Art by birotics.

Bonded Plants

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.

Palm (Arecales)
No distinct description yet.

Caryophyllales
An Order of plants that swell with water to help them hold other, small life-forms. Sometimes they hold these for symbiotic relationships, sometimes for prey. Others grow as single-celled organisms but the cells are particularly huge - a lake or river full of them looks like a pool of green or red water-filled balloons.

Dioscoreales
While other Orders in this Division live in bodies of water, this one reaches out onto land, using wet ground. This includes the permanently damp parts of forest floors, where it forms a film, sludge, or as dainty tendrils.

Liliales
Plants in this Order have a tendency to grow corms underground, branch out using rhizomes, and breach the surface in unexpected places as short, lush growth. They use water tables to do this.

Oxalidales
Some members of this Order fill themselves with water which they keep as separate bodies of water from the water around them, and sometimes adjust to digest insects, or create micro-environments for unique fauna with which they share a symbiotic relationship.

Ranunculales
No distinct description yet.

Sapindales
A plant that grows upwards, and therefore climbs everything from trees to cliffs.

Zingiberales
The sporophytes of this Order are well-developed.


Ouroboros encircled by roses.
Ouroboros encircled by roses, another example of stylised plant work. Art by atatatomnomnom.

Eccentrics

Few plants can survive in tough conditions as well as eccentrics. They stand resolute and proud in extreme dry environments – hot and cold – and on mountainsides, 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. Even animals don’t seem to enjoy the habitats that eccentric forests create as much as non-eccentric ones, but a few species do make a living in such places. Their cones provide animals with food, as do a few small berries.

Asparaglaes
Produces tight rosettes of needles that stick up out of the ground, with one or more cones at the centre.

Ceratophyllaceae
Species in this Order favour bodies of water for extending their roots. They have been known to produce dams and change the course of entire bodies of water.

Dipsacales
No distinct description yet.

Gentianales
No distinct description yet.

Magnoliales
Plants in this order are mostly trees and shrubs with short, stubby needles.

Pepper (Piperales)
The cones of these plants are generally tiny and densely packed.

Saxifragales
The cones of these plants are large and extravagant.

Trochodendraceae
The cones of the plants in this order have no scales.


Sunflower themed woman.
A sunflower-themed woman. How could you use your alien plant motifs in your worldbuilding? Art by HummingBirdHB. Character from the Plants vs. Zombies game by Popcap

Lace-roots

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.

Acorales
These plants are semi-aquatic and play a big role in keeping the edges of lakes and rivers intact. They make spadixes from which they release spores.

Daisy (Asterales)
No distinct description yet.

Chloranthaceae
These plants are fragrant, and walking on them releases more of their scent. The overall plants are generally soft, as are the roots.

Ericales
These plants produce strobili, which give some river banks a bobbly look.

Geraniales
Many species have 5-parted strobili.

Malpighiales
The leaves of this Order are toothed, but tiny.

Grass (Poales)
Common plants that spread well thanks to winds spreading their spores. [Author: I might want to move this Order elsewhere as it essentially still sounds like grass, just with spores instead of pollen.]

Solanales
No distinct description yet.

Witch herbs

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.

Green Algae
Small plants that grow, either free-floating or moored to rocks or debris in fresh water. Can grow into a thick sludge on water. Their sporophytes are small and delicate, and usually grow on the surface in great masses. Can generate large patches of these on snow and in parts of deserts to create very delicate, silky meadows.

Red Algae
Dainty yet robust plants that grow throughout Kaleida but do especially well in salt water and areas heavy in sodium. Most are various shades of red.

Brown Algae
[Author: This one has no differences to its real-world counterpart.]

Fire Algae
Fire algae extends its roots over river banks, the shores of lakes, and other wet environments to create veined visual effects. These roots produce a toxin that discourages other plants from growing, and care must be taken not to touch the roots, otherwise you may be poisoned.

Alismatales
These plants grow rhizomes that create entire environments for freshwater and saltwater animals. One species grows an obscenely huge sporophyte.

Austrobaileyales
The plants of this Order grows as aquatic trees, shrubs, and lianas.

Cornales
[Author: I'm not so sure there's anything distinctive I can use for this one.]

Euphorbiales
Some species produce latex.


So far there’s little to say about many of these plant Orders, but I’ve written all I can! In the next part we will add detail to our Orders.


Credits

Title image by cordiceps and used with their kind permission.