🌳Ents reproducing

[Ancalagon]

I think it just depends on which 'seedlings' are the strongest swimmers

 

[del_user(tom_bombadil)]

lol how they do it is hard to work out but what about an entwife giving birth

 

[wonko]

hehehe, are you sure she gives birth or does she drop fruit on the ground? its hard to tell what would happen...what exactly does an entwife look like?

 

[Tarien]

Easy! Not all plants are a-sexual. Sometimes, the pollen and eggs are in different plants, not just in different parts of the plant.

So, since Ents can move, I would assume they would just rub against each other, or something like that. Then voila! Pregnant Entwife, which would show by an increasingly large fruit. When gestation complete, fruit drops to ground, is pushed further in by Mommy's toe, and seed hatches, the surrounding soil inriched by the decaying fruit covering. Purrfectly normal likkle tree, or, in this case, Enting.

Then begins the life stages:
1. Infant, which is fed by rich soil from fruit's decay.
2. Toddler, is just getting roots out of soil and beginning to walk, though not very well.
3. Youngling (as called by Master Yoda in AOTC, which I saw on PREMIER NITE! GO ME! Sorry.) can walk, is learning language and history from elders.
4. Ent, fully grown and educated.

 

[del_user(tom_bombadil)]

lol

 

[I.am.Smeagol]

Hah! Good one Tarien!

 

[Firawyn]

Some questions on Ents

Hey, I was thinking alot about Ents this week (don't ask me why) and a thought occurred to me: Most trees and plants (not all, one exception I can think of being Holly Bushes) are asexual, meaning they don't need an opposite sex tree or plant to reproduce. However, in TTT, Treebeard talks about loosing the Ent Wives, and thus there had not been Entlings for some time - So my question is...well... "What the heck?"

 

[Elthir]

Re: Some questions on Ents

Well Ents are not actually trees of course (not that you said they were), and it seems apparent that to have Entings, both Ents and Entwives are needed.

I don't know that we necessarily need to theorize in detail regarding Entish reproduction...

... though I bet someone will

 

[HLGStrider]

Re: Some questions on Ents

Technically don't trees have male and female parts? I mean, it's been a long time since high school science/botany, but some plants can't fertilize themselves and need insects and wind to take the pollen from plant to plant in order to reproduce. . . so maybe Ents just go up and sneeze on their Entwives .

Just a thought.

I doubt it is anything like that, but I thought it was interesting.

 

[YayGollum]

Re: Some questions on Ents

Well, they are a People, not a Plant Type or a Plant People, so they don't have to be too different from the other Peoples. I was never especially satisfied with the descriptions I got of the Ents. They were basically giant human shaped (except that they came with nine toes), but they had plantish additions. I wasn't really sure if they were supposed to be part plant, or if they were clothing themselves with plants, decorating their beards with moss. If they are part plant, what are any of their systems like? Not just the reproductive one. If I dissected one of these, would he have lungs or intestines? It seems likely. But would the lungs and intestines be made out of wood? Were their eyes made of wood? Speaking of sneezing, did they produce mucus? If not, did they have a more plantish replacement?

The conclusion that I enjoy drawing is that they are basically People, but because Yavanna whined, Eru said, "Fine! Shut up. Sketch me up some basic ideas on what you want these things to look like. Let me go rustle up some souls to imprison in these things for until my favorite Children show up. Some up them might even be woken up by my favorites. If they happen to walk by." Instead of magically poofing souls out of nothing, as he did for elves, humans, and even the unanticipated Dwarves, though, he merely asked for volunteers from the legion of Ainur who were still out in the Void. Yavanna had many admirers out there. Any creepy magicalness of Ents merely comes from the fact that they are actually imprisoned Ainur.

 

[Firawyn]

Re: Some questions on Ents

If Eru can mess with biology with Elves to make them live longer, Dwarves to make them short, Hobbits to make them simple, than he could very easily have made Ents that don't need an opposite sex to reproduce.

@Elgee, I'm sure you are aware that the Ents had pollen and sun and so-on. And very few plants need an "opposite sex" to reproduce. The sun and soil and water help them grow, and when they bloom and their seeds, nuts, flowers, etc fall, they turn into new plants. I think that's what makes plant life so amazing... which I can't believe I just said because as a rule (I have seasonal allergies) I hate plants.

 

[HLGStrider]

Re: Some questions on Ents

A lot of them need another plant, however. I think a lot of plants can't self-pollinate. That's what bees are for.

He could've made Ents that don't need to sexually reproduce, but for that matter he could've made Humans that way . . . or Elves . .. or horses. . .

Apparently Eru liked the idea of sexual reproduction. Can't really blame him. I sort of like it too. . .

 

[Prince of Cats]

Re: Some questions on Ents

Well, there are many species such as Osage orange and hemp where plants are either male or female (with the occasional hermaphrodite)

Even if plants can self pollinate, they usually (by the morphology of their flowers or placement of their cones) prefer to mate with others, and for good reason. If you are producing asexually it is comparable to inbreeding, where mating with other ancestries allows for biodiversity -> microevolution so that their offspring can adapt to a changing environment. In terms of Tolkien's world, where Ents were souls of Maia?, a near clone of yourself or an 'inbreed' seed might not be seen fit for a new soul?

 

[Firawyn]

Re: Some questions on Ents

Hummm...I can see that.






And Elgee - Aren't you a mod!?! TMI!

 

[HLGStrider]

Re: Some questions on Ents

Bats her eyes innocently, Mod and Mom.

 

[Firawyn]

Re: Some questions on Ents

I noticed! Gosh. *shakes head* It's better if I don't reproduce.

 

[HLGStrider]

Merged two similar threads, btw.

 

[Ingwë]

I have never thought about their reproduction before. They are neither humans nor trees but a something in the middle. Personally I don't think they have sex the way humans do. Having in mind there are ents and entwives and some plans need insects to fertilise themselves, I think that ents transferred pollen to the entwives without any bees. Maybe the transfer was some kind of ritual or something similar to sex.

 

[Prince of Cats]

It's pretty much the same thing as humans in flowering plants except the genitals and uteruses are on the flowers

 

[Illuin]

by Ingwë
I have never thought about their reproduction before. They are neither humans nor trees but a something in the middle. Personally I don't think they have sex the way humans do.

Personally; I’m not letting my mind drift too far down that road . That’s right up there with the thought of female Orcs.