The Felinafolia ferrugenia,[1] or cat ear (Na'vi name: pamtseowll meaning "music plant"), is a woody stem zooplantae with a primitive nervous system, covered with modified leaves resembling cat ears. Pandoran birds tend to nest in their cup-shaped leaves.
Description[]
A group of cat ears in The Game
This species is both musical and beautiful with characteristics of both plants and animals. Cup-shaped leaves, which resemble cat ears, grow all over the stems of the plant. Inside the base of each cat ear, a small flower forms, which, when emerging, resembles small whiskers. The music is produced by wind passing over the leaves of the planimal, and is varied by the size of the specific planimal. The cat ear's music may resemble a small symphony when in a collective group.
The leaves are collected by the Na'vi as musical air instruments (hufwe) due to the sound produced when the wind moves across the leaves of the plant, and as children's playthings. Leaves of varied sizes can be attached to a base and then tapped with a stick or blown across, which causes air inside to vibrate and generate music notes. Water added to a leaf reduces the volume of air and changes the note, much like musical bottles from Earth.
Jake Sully and Neytiri pass a cat ear while hunting
Besides the ability to produce music, this planimal has the uncanny ability to turn in the direction of movement and track it. This 'tracking' can become disconcerting to humans who feel as if they are being watched as the planimal turns in response to their presence.
The behavior of this zooplantae has led xenobotanists to label these odd creatures as straddling on the 'evolutionary fence' of both plants and animals.
Trivia[]
Cat ears in The Way of Water
- In Avatar: The Way of Water, cat ears can be seen behind Miles Quaritch.
Source[]
- James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 121
- James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Pandorapedia
References[]
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