Motherwood trees

When the earth-like planet orbiting HD 3823 was reached in 1100 a.t., and information about its spectacular vertical ecosystem was transmitted back to the other colonies, genetic engineers on several worlds attempted to create their own versions. The first Mother Wood tree was grown in 1299 a.t in the Iota Horologi System by the Shepbra clade. Mother Wood trees are a 5km high banyan tree-like organism. Unlike terrestrial trees, they gather the water they need from the rain using their tens of millions of round lilypad-like leaves. The leaves have a slight inward slope, so rain water flows into the dip, then it goes down into the opening of the pipe-like stem at the center of the leaf.The water then flows down into the limbs where it is stored in cavities that range in size from 20cm in diameter to ten or more meters. Some of the water flows even deeper into the tree to end up inside cavernous water storage 'lakes' inside the trunk and largest branches.

Mother Wood trees fix their own nitrogen. They can bear any type of fruit they are given the genes for. Some single trees produce thousands of kinds of fruit. Some of the more common ones are the uka (a fruit similar to a watermelon), vlemclickgream, ocklevevs and plumbclickclicksnaps.

The wood of Mother Woods can be found to use everything from silk composites to diamondoid as their cell wall material and for support beams inside the wood, depending on the species of Mother Wood. Being huge nature lovers the shepbra clade engineered the Mother Woods as living space. Depending on the type of Mother Wood, the tree can "grow" caves inside the trunk, branches and the larger limbs. The caves are lit using bioluminescent buds, walls and fruit growing on limbs that grow out of the cave walls. For living space outside, the trees grow structures on the surface of the trunk, and on the branches and limbs that are thick enough to bear the load. Some of the larger branches have ponds where the tree is told to form a deep bowl-like pit. Some of the ponds are round, while others are all manner of organic shapes. There are even streams running along in trenches in the wood. Some come to an end in a waterfall, possibly landing in a lower pond or lake or falling all the way down to the ground; it just depends on what the specific tree is engineered to do.

Another structure common on Mother Woods are neelembee; woody sheets that grows off the trunk, branch or limb parallel to the ground. They look like those tree fungi that form a half, three quarter or more degree circle disk on the side of Terran trees. Their purpose is to give some flat 'ground' for the shepbra to land aircraft, put up chairs and sunbathe (they're ectothermic) or any other use that is facilitated better with flat areas. Some Mother Woods become elaborate woodcarvings. It is a common shepbra practice, but also takes on a spiritual meaning and is ritualized for the religious shepbra Mother Woodists. Mother Woods get the nutrients they need partially by the dust that lands on their leaves and is washed inside. The rest is carried up the tree to where it is needed by gengineered arthropods or synsects of varying types. Some are 50cm long ten-legged creatures, while others are 10cm long fliers. Gengineered geckos are also used to haul nutrients from the ground on certain Mother Woods. A few offshoots of Mother Woods are Noovleann Trees, klemle hembadoons, clickhjerv dromas and Marine Mother Woods.

Marine Mother Woods can grow in seas and oceans. They sink roots all the way down into the sea floor, and even deeper down into the rocks. Some types form a trunk underwater much wider than the trunk section above water. This wide trunk stops just a few tens of meters to several centimeters below the ocean's or sea's surface. This allows reefs and marine plants to grow on top of the subsurface portion of the trunk. The wide subsurface trunk plain can extend several kilometers beyond the farthest limbs of the tree.

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Motherwood Trees