Bionic Tongues

…you can have one for 2.25 million dollars

The Doclopedia #54

Things That Blow Up Real Good: Ixote Fruits

On the planet Velshan 4, in the area known as the Great Savoon Valley, you will find Ixote trees growing in vast numbers. The trees have a fairly columnar shape and grow to an average height of 100 feet tall. The side branches are seldom more than 6 feet long and are covered with small glossy green leaves. The trunk is a bronze color with thin smooth bark.

The tree grows quickly, attaining full height in about 30 years. After that, the tree spends another five years building up sugar reserves in tennis ball sized nodules on the roots. Once it has enough reserves built up, the tree blooms. The flowers come 1 or 2 to a branch and are tubular in shape. They range in color from very pale yellow on the lower branches to increasingly bright shades of yellow, orange and red as they go up the tree. The effect is quite beautiful and, coupled with the wonderful coconut/apple scent of the flowers, makes the tree a must see for visitors to Velshan.

Once the flowers have been pollinated by either Giant Red Bees or Sweemee Birds, fruits begin to develop. The fruits grow larger than a basketball and are prized for the thick pulpy flesh that lies just beneath the rock hard and thorny shell. Harvesting of the fruit is only done safely for about a 4 day period, just before the shell turns from grey to black. After that, the pulp inside begins to undergo a chemical change and produces gases that build up enormous pressure within the shell. After about a week, the fruit falls from the tree and upon hitting the ground, explodes with a loud boom and a shower of thorny shell fragments, the small amount or remaining pulp and small round seeds. Anything within 60 feet of the fruit is in danger of being hit by this shrapnel.

After the first fruit explodes, the shockwave causes more fruits to drop, which in turn cause even more to drop. An Ixote tree will usually drop all of it’s fruit in less than 10 minutes. It sounds like a raging cannon battle is being fought.

Once an Ixote tree has fruited, it will keep on fruiting every year for about a dozen years, then stop fruiting, drop all of it’s leaves and die off in less than a year.