https://www.almanac.com/content/three-sisters-corn-bean-and-squash
In the case of Mutated Plants, not all intelligence resides in a single genotype.
The Iroquois used the planting of three different plants to create a sort of self-contained ecosystem of Corn, Beans, and Squash (and sometimes 4th and 5th plants). This "companion planting" system could easily be adapted to create a communal Plantient, complete with skeletal structure, muscles and skin. The text below is taken directly from the Farmer's Almanac (link above), and the bulleted points are my own.
Each of the Sisters contributes something to the planting. Together, the Sisters provide a balanced diet from a single planting.
Corn:
As older sisters often do, the corn offers the beans necessary support.
- The corn is the Sisters' skeletal structure, as well as the spinal cord information superhighway part of the nervous system and handles most of the brain-load. And yes, some kin grow popcorn varieties, and have a natural attack when they raise their body temperature to fire off the kernels.
The pole beans, the giving sister, pull nitrogen from the air and bring it to the soil for the benefit of all three.
- In this role, the giving sister beans act as part of the digestive system.
As the beans grow through the tangle of squash vines and wind their way up the cornstalks into the sunlight, they hold the sisters close together.
- In this role, the beans act as connective tissues, musculature and part of skin.
- The vines of the beans provide arms and hands since they are in the upper-half of the trio.
Squash:
The large leaves of the sprawling squash protect the threesome by creating living mulch that shades the soil, keeping it cool and moist and preventing weeds.
- In this role, the squash forms part of the skin (below the waist, so to speak) almost as a tree-skirt, or kilt.
The prickly squash leaves also keep away raccoons and other pests, which don’t like to step on them.
- This improves the AC, as well as providing damage to attackers.
- The vines of the squash acts as legs and feet, providing mobility in conjunction with the root systems of all three.
Sometimes there are fourth and fifth sisters added to the mix:
Sometimes a fourth sister is included, such as a sunflower or amaranth, which attracts pollinators and lures birds away from the seeds.
- If either sunflowers or amaranth are included, the CHA score is improved as in Flowering Sentients.
Sunflowers can be planted at the cross-section of the spaces between the corn hills and harvested for seeds.
- Sunflowers can "scrub" radiation and toxins from the soil, so Sunflowers provide radiation resistance.
- With the appropriate mutation, Sunflower seeds can be ejected like shotgun scattershot as a natural attack.
Amaranth could come up among the squash and could be harvested both for greens and for seeds.
- Highly Nutrional amaranth can provide healing to a party, like a med-pack or healing potion.
Further Gaming notes:
- They need at least 6 hours of full sun every day.
- They can fill a space approximately 4 foot wide (particularly at the base)
