# 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:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/41 "2016-05-09T18:39:24Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > Do we know whether Swamp Thing or Poison Ivy would qualify? > > Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk I was going to mention Swamp Thing. I think that one of the plot points was him recovering from a wound by getting part or all of himself into the sunlight. I can’t quite remember because I was so focused on Adrianne Barbeau’s steller performance. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/42 "2016-05-09T19:31:55Z")
Here’s a rare one; the story _Metamorphosis_ by Gene L. Coon (1953) mentions a plant-based civilization called the Florians. I remember this because the last line of the story always stuck with me: “All flowers love the sun.” ---
**Author:** ![Nokomis42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e8c25b/32.png) [@Nokomis42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nokomis42)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2016, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/43 "2016-07-29T23:07:24Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#): > > Here’s a rare one; the story _Metamorphosis_ by Gene L. Coon (1953) mentions a plant-based civilization called the Florians. I remember this because the last line of the story always stuck with me: “All flowers love the sun.” I read this story in a collection some time in the late 50s/early 60s (I was very young and it was a library book) and have been looking for it ever since - the last line has stuck with me too! Do you know where/in what book I can find it? ---
**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:** [July 30, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/44 "2016-07-30T00:13:51Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > 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. Buck up, laddie; “The Keep” is an excellent book that was turned into a really shitty movie. And “The Tomb”'s main character–Repairman(/Handyman) Jack–still fascinates me decades after reading it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/45 "2016-07-30T00:48:41Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > 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. Should terraforming _have_ a defoliation stage? 😕 If you’ve found a planet with plant life, why are you wasting energy and other resources terraforming it at all? :smack: Now, harvesting and eating them before we realize they’re intelligent, _that_ I would buy. :eek:🙂 ---
**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:** [July 30, 2016, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/46 "2016-07-30T00:55:59Z")
No guarantee that indigenous plants are biologically compatible with Earth life. Safer to clearcut and seed with useful plants. ---
**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:** [July 30, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/47 "2016-07-30T02:28:56Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > …I can’t quite remember because I was so focused on Adrianne Barbeau’s stell[a]r performance. They - I mean she - were - I mean _was_ - great. ---
**Author:** ![wintertime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c68b51/32.png) [@wintertime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wintertime)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2016, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/48 "2016-07-30T10:17:45Z")
Let’s not forget [Audrey 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfcPnul77T8). Alan Dean Foster’s novel “Midworld” is set on a planet that could have been one of the inspirations for Cameron’s “Avatar”. [spoiler] The trees in both of those worlds form an interconnected, planet-wide intelligence. A human society on Midworld lives within Home Trees; they are almost symbiotically bonded with a life-form, called furcots, that uses photosynthesis, looks like animals but is a hybrid kind of life, that was “produced” by the trees to better incorporate the humans into the all-encompassing “society”. When a new bunch of star-faring humans arrives and starts to exploit the resources, the interconnected intelligence kills them.[/spoiler] There is also Evans Light’s horror story “Arboreatum” about evil trees and their peculiar diet (implied within the title). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/49 "2016-07-31T21:27:31Z")
Superman, arguably. ---
**Author:** ![Nokomis42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e8c25b/32.png) [@Nokomis42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nokomis42)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/50 "2017-01-04T23:01:59Z")
I finally found the story I remember, with a plant species of non-humans called Florians and the last sentence: “All flowers love the sun.” It’s “Metamorphosite” by Eric Frank Russell and appeared in the December 1946 edition of ‘Astounding Science Fiction’. The mag is available as a .pdf : > **[Astounding\_v38n04\_1946-12\_cape1736.pdf](https://ia800200.us.archive.org/14/items/Astounding_v38n04_1946-12_cape1736/Astounding_v38n04_1946-12_cape1736.pdf)** > > 5.36 MB ---
**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:** [January 5, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/51 "2017-01-05T00:36:46Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > No guarantee that indigenous plants are biologically compatible with Earth life. Safer to clearcut and seed with useful plants. Good point; any native flora would likely either be poisonous, or so biochemically incompatible we can’t derive any nutrients or calories from it (granted that could be useful for dieters). Also when speaking of extraterrestrial life even words like “plant” & “animal” probably need quotation marks. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/52 "2017-01-05T11:33:56Z")
[Vaster than empires and more slow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaster_than_Empires_and_More_Slow) ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/53 "2017-01-05T12:12:23Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I’m not interested here in technical arguments about whether it’s feasible for such a creature to actually exist here on earth or to evolve. Just for the record, [it wouldn’t work](https://what-if.xkcd.com/17/). (Of course, you could imagine photosynthetic systems that were much more efficient than the low-efficiency systems used on Earth, but in SF, “photosynthetic aliens” will almost always be green aliens, when they arguably should be jet black. Even then, they would have to be pretty slow moving and thinking.) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/54 "2017-01-05T12:16:37Z")
David Brin’s Uplift universe has a few who are very nice. The Kanten and Linten are both uplifted plant species that are very friendly toward Earthclan. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2017, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298/55 "2017-01-05T13:34:34Z")
The Linten have the odd habit of uplifting plants (such as the Kanten), but I don’t think it’s ever stated that they are themselves plants. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-there-been-science-fiction-stories-featuring-intelligent-beings-who-perform-photosynthesis/754298.md?page=2)