Anatomy of an Ent

[Laurinquë]

Originally Posted by Findegil

What remains is the questions of movements. But their are plants that do such things. I just don't have any clou how they manage it. But the mechanisem is their, it only must be addapted to the needs of the Ents.

Plants, and I imagine Ents as well, move in a variety of ways. The slow way is called tropism and entails actually growing in the direction of an external stimulus, such as a plant producing cells on the side facing the window so that over time the plant will start to bend in that direction. But despite their fondness for a leisurely pace in life this is not the way in which I imagine Ents move, after all Treebeard can take great strides and cover vast distances very quickly; therefore he is employing the second type of plant movement - nastic movements. Nastic movements act on both internal and external stimuli and include things like the opening and closing of flowers and the crushing violence of the venus flytrap. These feats are achieved by the regulation of water pressure in the plant's cells, more water and the flower petals open, less and they collapse in and the flower shuts.

Treebeard moves at a pace that far outstrips all other plants, but amazing things do happen in nature. Doesn't seem totally impossible. His eyes and brain are another matter entirely though. We can say the Valar implanted some animal DNA in there because plants are never going to develop the high-reasoning skills Treebeard displays unless they start doing some serious evolution in the near future.

As for Ent draught, I imagine it serves as a sort of sugar substitute to replace photosynthesis. And yes, I bet Treebeard uses his roots to drink water whilst he is standing around for the night.

Does this answer any questions? Or have I just gone too science-y for everyone?