# Have there been science fiction stories featuring intelligent beings who perform photosynthesis? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 8, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298 "2016-05-08T15:09:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/21 "2016-05-08T22:49:53Z")
Do the Ents count? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/22 "2016-05-08T23:06:08Z")
How about the James Arness “carrot-man” from “The Thing (From Another World)(1951)”? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/23 "2016-05-08T23:16:44Z")
**Lost in Space** had an episode with this as a theme: “The Great Vegetable Rebellion”. Here’s a photo of the leader, a talking carrot. [The Great Vegetable Rebellion | Lost in Space Wiki | Fandom](http://lostinspace.wikia.com/wiki/The_Great_Vegetable_Rebellion) ---
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/24 "2016-05-08T23:24:23Z")
A short story by Roald Dahl, “The Sound Machine,” features a man who puts on a pair of specially-boffined earphones and hears roses screaming in pain when their stems are cut. It’s a classic. I did a little Googling around and found that the idea of sentient plants is a well-established sub-genre of SF. For instance, here’s a discussion called “Talking Trees and Killer Spores: Flora of Science Fiction and Fantasy” at: > **[Talking Trees and Killer Spores: The Flora of Science Fiction and Fantasy](https://www.tor.com/2011/03/14/talking-trees-and-killer-spores-the-flora-of-science-fiction-and-fantasy/)** > > In this modern age of organic produce, vegetarianism, veganism, and hyper awareness of climate change as it relates to the flora of our planet; it’s hard to imagine the existence of life without th… ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/25 "2016-05-08T23:27:12Z")
Alan Dean Foster had a short story about this…I think it was “The Dark Light Girl” (collected in “…Who Needs Enemies?”). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/26 "2016-05-08T23:33:03Z")
IIRC, the brainy Dua feeds on sunlight in Asimov’s **The Gods Themselves**. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/27 "2016-05-09T02:30:41Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > [Zhaan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Farscape_characters#Zhaan) from _Farscape_. She also experienced _photogasms_ when exposed to intense sunlight. > [@TCMF-2L](#): > > **Lyekka** in **Lexx** was a plant based life form. However, after all these years, I cannot recall whether actual photosynthesis was mentioned as a plot point. > > TCMF-2L Lyekka was a carnivorous plant; I don’t think photosynthesis was ever mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/28 "2016-05-09T03:13:41Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > There have been lots of them. The Kanten in Brin’s Uplift series, the Angels in Sheffield’s Nimrod Hunt, the plant creature in John Christopher’s Lotus Cave, and of course, the half-plant/half human in the 1970s TV series “Quark,” just to name a few. There have also been stories in which humans become photosynthetic. Ficus from Quark was a Vegetron. Although he was human appearing, I do not recall that he was a human hybrid. He did, however attempt to pollinate with Princess Libido. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/29 "2016-05-09T03:57:28Z")
I am Groot. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/30 "2016-05-09T04:17:56Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > There are plant-people on intelligent trolleys in _A Fire Upon The Deep_. Can’t remember their name. Skroderiders, namely Blueshell and Greenstalk ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/31 "2016-05-09T05:38:39Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#): > > Ficus from Quark was a Vegetron. Although he was human appearing, I do not recall that he was a human hybrid. He did, however attempt to pollinate with Princess Libido. “Be, be, be, be, be, be, be, be.” “What do we do now?” “We wait for the bee.” ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/32 "2016-05-09T05:50:16Z")
There’s also “Green Winter” by F. Paul Wilson, and it appears I’m the only one who’s ever heard of that or him. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/33 "2016-05-09T07:57:10Z")
The Czillians from the Well World series are plant people who root themselves and photosynthesize during the day and work at night. IIRC the aliens from Poul Anderson’s _Fire Time_ had symbiotic plants growing on them. The [Supox](http://wiki.uqm.stack.nl/Supox) of Star Control II are sapient plants. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/34 "2016-05-09T12:14:08Z")
> [@MacSpon](#): > > Alan Dean Foster had a short story about this…I think it was “The Dark Light Girl” (collected in “…Who Needs Enemies?”). Those characters gave off light, but didn’t absorb it, as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/35 "2016-05-09T12:57:35Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > She also experienced _photogasms_ when exposed to intense sunlight. > > Lyekka was a carnivorous plant; I don’t think photosynthesis was ever mentioned. For what it’s worth, carnivorous plants do use photosynthesis. [UCSB Science Line](http://scienceline.ucsb.edu/getkey.php?key=2653) ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/36 "2016-05-09T13:20:35Z")
In Michael Resnick’s **Birthright** , the first intelligent species accidentally killed off during the expansion of Man were unfortunate enough to look like cabbages for orbital surveys, and the defoliation stage of terraforming caused their extinction. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/37 "2016-05-09T13:29:50Z")
Do we know whether Swamp Thing or Poison Ivy would qualify? Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/38 "2016-05-09T15:11:10Z")
Timothy Green from The Odd Life of Timothy Green. That wasn’t sci-fi though. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/39 "2016-05-09T15:15:21Z")
In Gene Wolfe’s “Book of the New Sun” the main character meets a green man who is from one of his world’s possible futures. The in-story explanation is that green men have a symbiotic relationship with genetically modified algae that lives in their tissues. The actual photosynthesis is performed by the algae, not the man. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/40 "2016-05-09T16:27:40Z")
> [@MacSpon](#): > > Alan Dean Foster had a short story about this…I think it was “The Dark Light Girl” (collected in “…Who Needs Enemies?”). In his 1976 book _Star Trek Log Eight_, Foster also wrote a very clever extension to the ST:TAS episode “The Eye of the Beholder.” In it, the _Enterprise_ crew encounters and helps a far-distant civilization of plant-based beings. I believe that the aliens photosynthesized. > [@Ethilrist](#): > > I am Groot. Quiet, you! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298.md?page=3)