Planet Downfall, the fourth book in my Flight of the Kestrel series, takes place on the planet Arcadia. A science team are sent to establish whether the planet is suitable for colonisation. The botanist on the team, Alvia Potter, is convinced that one of the plants is not only sentient, but mobile! She names them Pitcher Plants, because their leaves form tubes containing water to drown insects.
They have bell-shaped flowers whose stamens knock against them, making noise, and when she comes near their heads turn towards her. She claims they also move, but no one has ever seen it. They just seem to be in a sightly different place to when they were last seen. The other scientists mock her for this and criticise her for what they see as her obsession and neglecting her other work.
Real Pitcher Plants
All this was straight out of my imagination, so I was surprised to find that Pitcher Plants actually exist. There are actually several different plants under that title. Not sentient and mobile, but one looking very similar, as you can see above.
Wikipedia says: Pitcher plants are several different carnivorous plants that have modified leaves known as pitfall traps—a prey-trapping mechanism featuring a deep cavity filled with digestive liquid. The traps of what are considered to be “true” pitcher plants are formed by specialized leaves. The plants attract and drown their prey with nectar.Whether the Pitcher Plants on planet Arcadia turn out to be sentient and/or mobile, you’ll have to wait for the book to find out!
Ann Marie Thomas is the author of five medieval history books, a surprisingly cheerful poetry collection about her 2010 stroke, and the science fiction series Flight of the Kestrel, Intruders, Alien Secrets & Crisis of Conscience are out now Follow her at http://eepurl.com/bbOsyz