Wednesday, 4 December 2019

Rufous Carpet And Reddish Mat

Poul Anderson always tells us what another planet has instead of grass. On Ythri:

"...rufous carpet underfoot, springy, suggestive more of moss than grass though not very much of either..."
-Poul Anderson, "Wings of Victory" IN Anderson, The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979), pp. 3-22 AT p. 8.

That and many other details make it sound as if he has been there.

On Avalon, jointly colonized by human beings and Ythrians:

"...the reddish mat of native susin..."
-Poul Anderson, "Wingless" IN The Earth Book..., pp. 409-433 AT p. 414.

So the Ythrian home planet has a reddish-brown or brownish-red carpet and an Ythrian colony planet has a reddish mat. I had to check to confirm whether susin was native to Avalon or imported from Ythri. Imported plants include:

"...Terrestrial grass and clover, Ythrian starbell and rye, Terrestrial oak and pine, Ythrian braidbark and copperwood..."
-ibid.

Clover accompanies human beings to many planets, e.g., see Lokon, which also has red pseudo-grasses.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I also thought of Nike, in "A Tragedy of Errors," which at first had little or no atmosphere (due to being a small planet). It took so LONG for Nike to finally outgas an atmosphere that its sun was beginning to leave the main sequence when it finally gained an atmosphere. By the time humans colonized Nike life, including plants, were still so primitive that introduced terrestrial plants and fauna easily crowded out the local life forms. So I would imagine Terran grass was dominant on Nike.

Ad astra! Sean