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Description
Yet another peripatetic vegetal organism, this one probably around the size of an elephant. It could simply be a plant-based alien "creature," perhaps resembling a motile pitcher plant, but my preferred interpretation is that it's actually a life cycle stage of the Florb, q.v.:

www.deviantart.com/thomastapir…

My thinking is that the Florp is a kind of wandering ecological scrubbing agent seeded in biohazardous environments, perhaps demilitarized NBC battlefields or sites of former industrial contamination. It waddles around sucking up toxic sludge through its hydrostat tube feet, runs the slurry through a purifying rinse inside inside its body, and then spits back out clean water and soil. When its chemosensors detect an area of particularly dense toxicity above a certain safety threshhold, the lid on the top of the body pops open and it deploys a payload of Florbs (and/or Shreekers?) to act as regional warning buoys. In terms of tactical functionality, perhaps its design is repurposed from a military biomachine that originally served as a living mine dispenser or mobile rocket battery.

"Florp" is actually a contraction of "Florapillar" (floral caterpillar). These creatures are also less commonly known as "Tetratopillars" after their tetrahedral body form and their role in cleaning up toxic (teratogenic) waste. I was inspired both by the boxy forms of Lithops "living stones" and by the eggs of the phasmid Extatosoma tiaratum, which can be shot up to 30' from their mother's body and resemble little seeds with a yummy cap, encouraging ants to take them back to their nests and keep them safely hidden until they hatch.

Description
Yet another peripatetic vegetal organism, this one probably around the size of an elephant. It could simply be a plant-based alien "creature," perhaps resembling a motile pitcher plant, but my preferred interpretation is that it's actually a life cycle stage of the Florb, q.v.:

www.deviantart.com/thomastapir…

My thinking is that the Florp is a kind of wandering ecological scrubbing agent seeded in biohazardous environments, perhaps demilitarized NBC battlefields or sites of former industrial contamination. It waddles around sucking up toxic sludge through its hydrostat tube feet, runs the slurry through a purifying rinse inside inside its body, and then spits back out clean water and soil. When its chemosensors detect an area of particularly dense toxicity above a certain safety threshhold, the lid on the top of the body pops open and it deploys a payload of Florbs (and/or Shreekers?) to act as regional warning buoys. In terms of tactical functionality, perhaps its design is repurposed from a military biomachine that originally served as a living mine dispenser or mobile rocket battery.

"Florp" is actually a contraction of "Florapillar" (floral caterpillar). These creatures are also less commonly known as "Tetratopillars" after their tetrahedral body form and their role in cleaning up toxic (teratogenic) waste. I was inspired both by the boxy forms of Lithops "living stones" and by the eggs of the phasmid Extatosoma tiaratum, which can be shot up to 30' from their mother's body and resemble little seeds with a yummy cap, encouraging ants to take them back to their nests and keep them safely hidden until they hatch.