Piranah Plants

[shadowgoomba]

The ones that dig, maybe their roots extend to a pipe network underground.

[Rex]

Well that could be plausible, their seems to tons of pipes underground.

[Meta Black Yoshi]

I just had a thought about those "digging' piranah plants so tell me what you guys think about it. We know that some piranah plants that start out appearing verry small can somehow inflate themselves to about 4 times that size possible using some kind of stored fluid or something. What if there was a vine or part of a larger plant that had manny piranah buds on it and so much fluid. The buds would be buried underground for protection(since piranah buds and piranah plant in bud form are extremly weak) and would pop up out of the ground when inflated with the fluid. The plant could then control where the fluid travled in the vine and the vines with manny piranah buds on them could grow all over the place. That might explain how the "digging" piranah plants seem to move almost instantly from one spot to another. But if an inflated bud were to be destroyed then the fluid would be lost and the particular plant or part of plant would cease to function.

[shadowgoomba]

That would make sense. It's often shown that there are Piranha Plants with other buds on them. Maybe Mom Piranha's plants didn't actually get destroyed, just deflated, which explains how they come back so fast.

[Toomai]

Discussion moved from max2's "oops" topic:

max2 said:

I'm just wondering, and I think this is in the wrong sub-forum, but how do Piranha Plants know Mario is around? They have no eyes, ears, and no (visible) nose.

rex said:

Um, we already have a topic for piranha plants, so please move this disscusion to that topic. And to answer you're question, I think they use sonics, or else they're white spots are actually eyes. After all, nipper plants have eyes, and petey piranha can drive a kart.

And welcome to the forums max!

yoshi said:

The way addmins move forums into forums, I think any of us could do it. But I'm not going to do it, at least not right now. I'm going to go eat in a few minuts. But yea, Some Nipper plants have eyes. The only onse I've seen that don't have eyes are the onse from Yoshi Story but the strange thing is that I think I remember them having eyes in the yoshi story art. Strange....Also, I think it may be possible for Piranah plants to have good thermal senses but that might not explain why Petey can drive a kart.

max2 said:

well, I don't know how to move threads, so... yeah. *waits*

I think this is actually one of the more confusing parts of the Mario Universe. But, that's just me. I know no one really ever noticed it, which is sorta sad.

shadowgoomba said:

Nippers don't have eyes in Yoshi's Island either. Hmmm...perhaps they're like flies? In that several small panels make up the eye, perhaps the spots of the Pirahna Plant. And Nippers...well, the ones without eyes just seem to bumble around; maybe they just have primative sensing abilities.

[Meta Black Yoshi]

I think nippers and piranah plants have simple primitive eyes. They probably don't see well, especialy nipper plants and they probably rely more on other senses. Some species of nipper plant's eyes are white to fool other organisms. As piranah plants grow up, their bodies turn white and red to mimic other types of vegetation and their eyes also turn white to make the camaflouge complete.

[shadowgoomba]

Yeah, that sounds about right. And them having eyes is rare in the Marioverse in that it has a point: only the ones with eyes jump up to bite Mario.

[kingkoopa]

I wonder how pirhana plants get into pipes???

[shadowgoomba]

Nippers spread with spores, so it is feasible that one could have landed in a pipe and grown around it.

[kingkoopa]

That would explain why there is a pirhana plant in my toilet
(can't do # 2 there any more)
(no I am not a pervert)

[Meta Black Yoshi]

What are you talking about? Anyways, some nipper plants could also just hope over into a pipe. Remember some have the ability to move.

[kingkoopa]

Yeah but some pipes are too high to reach unless you Mario jump

[Meta Black Yoshi]

Thats right, so I guess they must have just landed in those ones.

[kingkoopa]

yep

[shadowgoomba]

How do the Nipper Spores turn into Nippers so quickly anyway?
I can't believe we haven't discussed this yet.

[Toomai]

Perhaps they look like spores, yet they're actually some sort of egg.

An extremely quick metabolism may explain why they bite anything that moves in any case.

[shadowgoomba]

Why does the Piranha Plant cycle happen so quickly, though? I mean, Naval Pirahna lays its spores after just getting mature (without fertilization, I'll add) and then they fly through the air and instantly hatch/sprout. Normally fertilization, dispersal, hatching, and growth take weeks for something as complex as a Nipper plant.

[Toomai]

While I was thinking about this, it occured to me that Yoshis have a similar mechanism - they can lay eggs almost at will as a weapon. Maybe the Nippers we see are part of a similar "get something out there quickly" mechanism, and actual Pirahna Plant reproduction takes longer.

[shadowgoomba]

But it would still take weeks to get the Nipper developed, even if there was a more sophisticated means of reproduction.

[Meta Black Yoshi]

All I can say to that is
a: Water supply
b: Kamik Magic
c: Size of plant/ overall state of the plant and the area

In the case of Naval Piranha there was an abundance of water and probably some extra nutrients too, so the spores would have more than enough water and nutrients to develop at a fast rate. Usually a spore would stay dormant connected to the main plant until conditions became better enough so that multiple plants could be sustained in a small area or until a strong wind or gust came along and blew the spores somewhere far away hopefully a place with ideal conditions.

Spores could be sprouting on contact simply because it helps them to survive. It makes sense that they would have a better chance of surviving life if they can defend themselves and move around. It's not that hard to imagine how they do it, they could simply be under pressure and when pressure is released their casing disintegrates. Then they quickly find a source of food or water and when they find a really good one they root.

During the fight with Naval Piranha Kamek's magic increases the growth rate of the small plant so its not hard to believe that it maybe also affected the spores.

Completely developed spores can stay dormant for years. They will only sprout in favorable conditions. In the battle with Naval Piranha, the plant could have already been mature, and it could have even already had spores developing inside of it. We have seen that smaller plants do create the spores and that sometimes they become nipper dandelions and create many spores. So the plant doesn't have to be big to be a reproductive maturity.

Also, a few more things... about Naval fertilization. Like I said, the plant could have already been fertilized, it could have not needed to be fertilized (asexual reproduction), or the magic powder could have fertilized it.