The Wanderers

Socratea the walking palm — stilt-rooted, and legend says she walks toward the light, though the Deep Root’s botanists have established the trunk stays put; Socratea has never confirmed or denied, which the faction considers the perfect answer. Her road-company: Lodoice the coco de mer carrying the largest seed on Earth, Talipot (who flowers once after decades, then dies — the faction’s one funeral, which all eight factions attend), Ravenala the traveler’s palm, Bambou the fastest-growing woody plant on Earth, Niu the great voyager coconut, and Salix the weeping willow, who follows water wherever it runs. Road politics: right of passage, the etiquette of the knock, and the standing rule that a Wanderer is fed before being questioned.

Back to The Trees