Floran biology

You folks are looking at this "gender" and "unisex" thing all wrong. You are imprinting animal gender characteristics on plants.

Sex arose in life even before eukaryotic lineages for plants and animilia diverged, genetically. Sex as a scientific term means the exchange of genetic data between two organisms when creating offspring, rather than one organism creating genetically identical offspring. By that definition, ALL KINDS of life use sex to reproduce, from plants to animals to protozoa. However, genders as a socio-physiological term only apply to animilia. In animals, complex behaviors and advanced genetic diversity has led to differences in sexual partners that affect behavior and physiology - a female looks and acts differently from a male.

However, in non-animal lineages, gender has little or no change on physiology OR behavior, it only serves as a means to increase genetic diversity, strengthening the species.

Thus, in Florans, a plant species, being genderless means that there are NO behavioral changes between "sexual genders," and likely almost no physiological ones. "Sex" as a means of producing offspring and increasing diversity would be something done with neither fanfare nor significance.

 

+1

That's been my reasoning and thoughts behind Floran life exactly.

 

Now I know next to nothing on this topic, but:

- Isn't sexual attraction and all that an evolutionary trait that encourages reproduction? Same with the subconscious urge to protect children, etc.
- Fak's explanation seems to disregard any cultural / social significance Florans would have towards reproduction.

 

Actually, sex has more then one definition. I was more referring to the 'sexes' as in physical genders. Male or female.

Plants DO have different 'sexes' there are male and female plants as well as a whole spectrum in between. There are physical differences between plants of the male and females sexes. (Ex. Male holly trees have leaves that are less sharp and flower but do not produce berries while females have sharp leaves and produce the red berries they are known for.) I covered this in my little lecture on the last page. So female and male floran would look different, have anatomical differences and what not.

As they evolved and developed I fall back to Sen's statement. They have essentially become animalia when they became humanoid creatures with a plant make-up essentially. A male floran may prefer one female over another because she has more beautiful colors or is a stronger fighter. They have free thought and will and would have attractions and opinions. Like all 'animalia' even simple animals like fish who rely almost purely on instinct have this(more or less really). So to say they don't would revert them back to being simple, immobile plants like the flowers and grass outside our houses who do not have thoughts and personalities.

As being 'unisex' I assume floran would not have a set 'gender' unless they choose to. It would not matter if you have a Stamen or a Carpil until it came down to reproduction. But you would not seperate between male and female other then on those terms. It would not be a cultural significance like you said. But they would still have intercourse, if they enjoy it or if any 'fanfare' is involves depends on your headcanon or the floran I suppose. We're roleplaying here so really, it's all up to you. But it's good to use some actual facts too for things like this that we have to make up ourselves using what information we do have.

It's like Glitch, who are robots essentially. Having genders would be pointless but many assign themselves genders being more masculine or feminine. As floran expanded into the world and met other cultures they may have began to as well.


TL;DR
Plants have different physical sexes. Floran have evolved and become 'humanoid' for lack of a better term and have free-thought, free will and personalities and thus could be attracted to certain traits in others. Genders differences would have no impact on their culture besides reproduction. How reproduction goes down is up to each player a widepsread accepted 'canon' of it would be impossible.

Thank you.

 

floran biology

 

I agree they are explained.


PS: Grim Reaper here, just brought this thread back from the dead.

 

lol.

 

I disagree with the theory of ''unisex'' not because they are ''Plant-like'' they absolutely have to be unisex or worst, spread floran spores/pollen to reproduces

 

I'm not even going to read through all the pages, but I'll state my beliefs anyway cause screw you.

Florans are hermaphrodites. When regarding reproduction between two florans, their sex is irrelevant. There is no such thing as male/female, mother/father in floran culture. However, each individual is capable of identifying as a gender-role. A floran can be masculine or feminine, and as such will be identified as male/female by other races.

I'd imagine that, during "intercourse", or I guess what we can call "rubbingcourse", both subjects would produce seeds and pollen at the same time. This means a floran could potentially reproduce asexually, but of course, that would result in deformed and weak offspring. Gotta mix that DNA, bby.

 

I strongly agree with this. Pretty much covers the hermaphroditic side of my lecture on the last page. Just worded much better.

 

But, how do you keep all the other florans pollen on your own stamen and vice versa? If both parties had both parts and just let loose, then they would end up pollinating themselves, as well as their partner. I do think florans are true hermaphrodites, in that they have both sex organs present in their bodies and each individual is capable of asexual reproduction in extreme situations. Socially, I think florans may have mild understanding of "gender"identity as it relates to other animals and species, but I think they would more realistically have a social role construct of their own, that may or may not parallel typical gendered-species' social roles at any given time.

Which is valued more to them, the pollen or the seed? If some floran is known to be a particularly good seed-bearer, I'd recon everyone would want to pollinate that. Perhaps it is possible for one floran to produce many seeds, which makes them a highly fertile, highly sought-after individual. It wouldn't make sense for this floran to mainly pollinate others, but to be pollinated...In effect, they would be highly competed for, and probably pollinated by more than one Floran for diversity of offspring. This gives rise to a construct that resembles a harem or polygamy/polyandry, which makes sense with florans being large, family-based tribes that hunt and gather together. So a village structure where elders, matriarchs and patriarchs dictate law and order to their band of saplings and cocoonkin. Likewise, if one was to bear a seed, they would likely want the pollen of only the best hunters. This creates competition over skill, strength, and all those other positive things in floran culture. In contrast, if someone was not so keen on bearing seeds, but wanted to procreate, during the "Blooming Season" they could put on displays to show their skills, hoping to catch a seed-bearers eye. This leads me to believe that perhaps when florans are "in season" or "in bloom"...or when the weather is just right to plant a seed, pollination starts to happen. All that asside, even the time from pollination to fertilized seed is important, can a floran defend themselves when they are carrying a pollinated seed? Does it 'fruit' before you can plant it? Does it fruit inside or outside the body, or not at all? How long is the floran who is carrying the fruit/seed going to be incapacitated to hunt? Just talking out loud here of course...

So, after all this hypothetical banter, its easy to see that there CAN be "gender" roles in a hermaphroditic (non-gendered) society that come from within, but they would be different than more conventional gender roles. Different, but perhaps able to be translated as "gender" to other races. For example, a strong floran hunter who's never been good at fruiting their own seeds, and only prefers the role of pollinator when it comes to procreation could be called "male." A floran who is particularly inclined to bear seeds could be considered "female". However, what makes them different, A floran could decide at any time which role they want to take up, giving them the ability to swich between polinator and seed-bearer, where as all the other species are stuck in their sexual roles because of lack of equipment. For this reason, if "gender" lines exist in floran society, I believe they would be more to designate and honor traditional roles than it would be to separate and oppress others.

 

Well pardon me, wayside forum dweller, for being interested in a topic and wanting more discussion. e_e Where's the active floran biology thread?

 

They can always have...er....uh...."Attachments."

 

Since this is alive again I'm going to say. Go look at my lecture on page 3. I feel I did a good job covering things. Just saying, for the person still interested in this. I think it's a cool topic. Biology is neat.

 

yes.

let's make a glitch character into a glorified vibrator.

oh wait, this has happened already.

 

I read the whole thread....I was just interested in exploring the sociological and cultural terms behind Floran behavior.. I guess I'll just go now. :<