In the movie The Thing from Another World the alien invader turns out to be a mobile plant that feeds on blood. While playing with a redesign of the creature I started to wonder what sort of civilization a mobile plant would come up with. Frankly, I was stumped. A plant civilization is going to have a whole different set of wants from an animal one.

After a bit of thinking it occurred to me that just because the Thing was a plant didn’t necessarily mean that it came from a civilization of plants. It could have been the equivalent of a guard dog or a helper monkey. The ship it arrived in is destroyed. The Thing can’t (or won’t) communicate. The men who find it only assume it is the ship’s pilot.

So then I started thinking about what sort of culture would create plants to act as soldiers and servants. And I wondered what other sorts of plant creatures might they create? (And which b-movie monsters could I reimagine as plant monsters?.)