Short story with intelligent plants/flowers and human astronauts

[Katie.C]

Hello, I hope that you might be able to help me find a book for my husband. He has been talking a lot about it recently and I'd love to find it for him.

He read it when he was young, in the late 1980's to early 1990's but he thinks the book belonged to his dad so may have been written earlier than the 1980's. He described it as a short story, definitely science fiction but with some horror elements.

The plot revolved around astronauts/space travellers that land on a plant that is covered in flowers and plants. While they are there they begin to realise that the plant life is sentient, he says he remembers some of it being set in a greenhouse. The plants can communicate with the humans through telepathy, and he described a chilling scene where the plants are talking to them and the humans realise they've been taken hostage by the plants. He remembers the flowers as being similar to sunflowers, but he's not sure. I hope this is enough details, I can ask him if you have any questions.

We have ruled out:
Isaac Asimov - Each An Explorer
Isaac Asimov - Green Patches
John Windum - Chrysalids

Any help you can provide would be amazing! Thank you very much in advance!

 

[Bagpuss]

Could it be Ursula K. Le Guin's "Vaster than Empires and More Slow"? Plot seems superficially similar with a survey team landing on a sentient planet which is afraid of the explorers. Not sure about the sunflowers, though.

 

[Katie.C]

Could it be Ursula K. Le Guin's "Vaster than Empires and More Slow"? Plot seems superficially similar with a survey team landing on a sentient planet which is afraid of the explorers. Not sure about the sunflowers, though.

Thank you, we'll have a look into it. We haven't come across it in our search yet so it seems hopeful. I will let you know if it's the one!

 

[Extollager]

Probably not, but it sounds a little like Richard Wilson's "The Watchers in the Glade." No greenhouse.

 

[Parson]

It wouldn't by any chance have the line "one comes" which leads to the astronauts discerning that the plant life is sentinent? And to escape the humans have to bomb a good share of the planet. It was a first contact book. I've read such a story now, if I can only remember what it was.

 

[KMreader]

Is it The Lotus Caves? The Lotus Caves

 

[Astro Pen]

Going way back, more his dad's era, Men Martians and Machines by E.F Russell has many elements of this in the Symbiotica and Mesmerica chapters. Memory and time may have fused them.

ps here's the wiki

Men, Martians and Machines - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[hitmouse]

Is it The Lotus Caves? The Lotus Caves

Dont think so. That is about a sentient plant- like organism in a cave on the moon in some sort of symbiotic relationship with a long-lost astronaut, discovered by two boys on a jaunt. Great book.

 

[Katie.C]

Going way back, more his dad's era, Men Martians and Machines by E.F Russell has many elements of this in the Symbiotica and Mesmerica chapters. Memory and time may have fused them.

ps here's the wiki

Men, Martians and Machines - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Oh, this is a very interesting theory! I mentioned the book to him today. I read the wiki first and then chose carefully what to reveal as memory is a tricksy thing and I didn't want to influence him. He said he remembered it as the last short story of a collection! These two stories have many of the elements he has talked about before and they're the final two of the four stories in this book...you could definitely be on to something here!

He's going to find a copy and give it a read. Very exciting if we have found it! Thank you and I'll let you know what happens!