The scorpion thistle (Na'vi name: txumpaywll meaning "poison-water plant") is a rare plant on Pandora that produces a single gigantic flower at the tip of an enlarged stem.
Seen at Avatar: The Experience
This plant has coevolved with a particular bird species that is its sole pollinator. This is similar to the highly coevolved plant-insect pollinator relationships on Earth. This plant-bird pollinator coevolution has resulted in both species resembling each other. The beak of the bird fits perfectly into the small opening of the flower, where it locates nectar and in doing so transfers pollen to the plant.
The scorpion thistle has a specialized mechanism to prepare the soil for its own seeds to grow. A highly acidic liquid drops onto the ground below the plant. This liquid dissolves any other living organisms in the spot where it lands and also breaks down rocks and other large particles into a nutrient-rich seed bed. When seeds mature and drop from the flower, they land in this "safe site" and germinate readily under the protection of the parent plant. This highly evolved form of "parenting" has rarely been observed in plants.
Its plant sap is collected by the Na'vi and used to make medicines and poison hunting darts that injure but do not kill prey.
Trivia[]
Seen in The Way of Water
- In Avatar: The Game, they will ignore Na'vi but if playing as a human, they will spray yellow toxic gas at them.
- In Avatar: The Game, they are depicted as not exhibiting bioluminescence.
- A few scorpion thistles can be seen in Avatar: The Way of Water when a young Miles Socorro is playing with the Sully children.
- They can be seen in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, but lack an entry in the Hunter's Guide.
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