The puffball tree (Na'vi name: rumut meaning "ball tree") is a plant from the same genus as the puffer and vein pod. The Na'vi call them "ball trees" while the RDA calls them "balloon trees".
The Canyon Puffball Tree also grows in the Spires.
Description[]
Seen in the first film
Resembling lollipops, the tree is tall with orange globular structures supported by the branches. They are filled with hydrogen gas and sodium hydroxide, which can cause them to explode if provoked. The plant is very important in Pandora's eco-system, because of these structures. The death of a puffball tree would be a huge blow to the survival of all life in the area; they absorb toxic gases like life-size vacuoles in plant cells, purifying the air, as well as excess sodium in the soil. When they are large enough, they break free of the plant and float upwards.
Usage[]
A group of puffball trees in Avatar: The Game
The Na'vi harvest the leaves to make "salt" because of their salty taste. They also use them to feed animals. They have learned to be careful of the gaseous balls, due to their explosive nature.[1]
Because of its sodium absorbing properties, humans have brought samples of the plant back to Earth, for potential use in saline areas where overfarming has left soils salty and useless.
First-time adventurers often mistake puffball trees for banshee eggs due to the scale-like leaf patterns on the balls.[2]
Avatar: Pandora Rising[]
The puffball tree is featured as a troop for the Na'vi faction in Avatar: Pandora Rising. It is an Uncommon building type troop. When placed on the battlefield, the puffball tree will periodically fire sets of two puffball pods directly ahead of itself until it expires or is destroyed. The pods explode and deal damage when they are destroyed or impact an enemy troop or building.
Trivia[]
Puffballs at Pandora: The World of Avatar
- The puffball tree's pods are blue in color, rather than orange, at the Pandora: The World of Avatar theme park.
- While they may be seen as a Lionberry, a social media post refers to them as puffball trees, assuming this is not an error.[3] They are depicted as being close to the ground, making it possible that they are young puffball trees and that they may change color, or shed their outer layer, as they mature.
- In Avatar: The Game, they are depicted as not exhibiting bioluminescence.
- In AVTR Advanced Team, puffball trees can be destroyed to make shortcuts in the map.
Sources[]
James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide pg 138-139
References[]
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