Ecology of Hyperion’s Tesla trees
Posted on February 1, 2022
Named after the Old Earth inventor Nicola Tesla and his infamous Tesla coil, the Tesla trees are plantiform dominant species in the flame forest of Hyperion. They are characterized by their unique ability to perform electrical discharges in certain seasons, thus causing forest fires of gargantuan proportions. The whole ecosystem of the flame forests is shaped and adapted to this seasonality. The present paper summarizes the biology of Tesla trees, the molecular mechanism of electric discharge, and the ecological significance of this process.