Woodwistler

Woodwistlers are a species of sentient, ambulatory plants from the planet Sunchorus. Their name derives from their natural mode of communication, which is based upon driving air through hollow branches, creating a flute-like sound.

Biology and Appearance

Woodwistlers have squat, cylindrical, woody bodies about three-quarters of a meter in diameter and similar height, completely covered in thick, brownish-grey bark except for a large opening protected by a fibrous membrane at the top which acts as both mouth and stomach. They support themselves and locomote on dozens of stiff, semi prehensile roots. They have three barkless arms which protrude from the edges of their mouth; each arm has six fingers tipped by a hard spine. The arms must be withdrawn for the oral chamber to close, and are used to process food during digestion. Their canopies are shrublike, growing from stubby branches around the rim of their oral chambers; the largest contain hollow passages used for vocalization. When ambulatory, the branches and leaves are retracted and folded upwards, giving an overall height of up to 1.7 meters; when photosynthesizing, they spread out, creating a crown up to about two meters wide.

Woodwistlers are very nearly blind, having only sensitivity to directional brightness, but have extraordinarily acute hearing and sensitivity to vibration.

The 'brains' of woodwistlers are composed of accumulations of semi-hardened sap near the center of their bodies, through which run microscopic channels created, accessed, and modified by tiny filaments protruding from the lining of the memory chamber. It is possible for woodwistlers to transfer skills, memories, and knowledge by consuming chunks of this neural sap, though this requires (or causes) the donor to be dead in order to access the material, though it is notably unreliable and effectively impossible to reliably target; the tissues between the oral chamber and brain case draw in the donated sap and incorporate it into unused volume. The consumption of more than a half-liter or so of neural sap causes woodwistler bodies to expand to make room. This causes them to become taller and wider at the top, eventually rendering them immobile, and is associated with slowed and fragmented cognition. Due to practical and philosophical considerations, very few woodwistlers consume much neural sap; the average individual only consumes a small fragment of the sap of their immediate ancestors as part of funeral rites. However, every community maintains one or a handful elder individual who consumes the majority of the neural sap of the deceased; these elders grow to immense size and can reach extraordinary ages when cared for properly.