[sofon]

That's such a neat idea. I wonder why floating plants don't already exist. I'm also surprised that I've not seen it in Scifi.

[ridgeguy]

Not hydrogen storage for seed dispersal, but Larry Niven's Known Space series featured Stage Trees. These were plants genetically engineered to be solid fuel rockets. They grew to be quite large, multistage launchers. When they ignited, they dispersed their seeds to other planets.

[adrianN]

How would an evolutionary pathway to floating look like?

[stephengillie]

Like tumbleweeds as air plants[∆], floating around like helium-filled beach balls, living off the humidity and occasional puddle or storm.

One problem with floating plants is that dirt and water are heavy.

[∆]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tillandsia

[chopin]

One could argue that Avatar has those.

[fosco]

to add to this, I just listened to a podcast called StarTalk [0] where Neil deGrasse Tyson interviewed James Cameron [1]. James Cameron stated the idea for some of the plants actually come from personally scuba diving and seeing some plants react the way they did in the movie (specifically when you touch them move or close up)

James Cameron stated he has been a passionate scuba diver and it was a slight nod to others who may have had similar experiences.

[0] https://www.startalkradio.net/show/ [1] https://www.startalkradio.net/show/the-spirit-of-exploration...