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Orwoods
Orwoods
Image from Steve Bowers
Orwoods orbiting the gas giant Massey-Bromlei are close enough to share elements of their symbiotic ecology.
An ecosystem that exists within a Dyson tree, or a closely associated forest of such trees.

An Orwood ecology constitutes a stable or evolutionary space-based biota, with or without symbiotic sentient (human, neogen, etc.) interaction. The individual organisms in such an ecosystem may live wholly within the tissues of the trees concerned, or be capable of thriving in vacuum and travelling between the trees through space.

Many Dyson trees contain spaces within their tissues which can support life; these spaces are often configured into comfortable habitats for modosophonts, complete with breathable air and access to water. To further support life, these trees produce edible fruit and other consumable products within the habitable spaces; in an Orwood, these habitable spaces may be large and support not just modosophonts but an entire ecology which has a complex symbiotic relationship with the tree's life cycle.

Organisms which can travel through space between different Dyson Trees may carry genetic material or other useful data, or may translocate physical resources that can help the tree to grow, reproduce and to better interact with local environments and cultures.
Orwood Forest
Image from Todd Drashner
The Macrania Orwoods around Frei
 
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GengineeringHigh Tech / HitechInfrastructure
Organic/Biotech
 
Development Notes
Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 17 December 2001.

 
 
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