Chuck Tingle

GUMTANGLE - TIMELINE #12980045

Added 2024-06-25 16:45:41 +0000 UTC

(Timeline Tuesday #152)

While carnivorous plants are not unheard of on this timeline, they are often seen as a fascinating anomaly. Typically, the prey these strange flora consume is quite small, link insects who happen to wander into the clutches of a venus fly trap. Because of this rarity, it may surprise some to discover just how many carnivorous plants exist on nearby timelines.

One such plant is the gumtangle. In many ways, this large tree fits in with the flora of our reality. It features a thick brown trunk that’s covered in bark and expands downward in a complex root system. The top of this plant provides all the foliage one might expect, several branches weaving their way past one another and overflowing with large leaves. The overall effect is to create lush plumes of greenery that sit atop the trunk. Gumtangles provide a lot of shade, and this is by design.

Along with the foliage, gumtangles also produce long strands of pink tar that hangs down in extended drippings. The tree maintains an up and down control over these hanging strands, moving them as though they were appendages. It is believed this is a distant evolution of natural tree sap.

Typically, these pink strands are tucked up into the tree, which allows space for any potential prey to wander underneath the plant in search of a place to rest. When this happens, a gumtangle will drop one or more sticky appendages, capturing the target prey and then tugging it back up into the shrubbery where it is slowly digested through a thick, acidic secretion.

Gumtangles mostly consume birds and small mammals, and larger prey will often come away from an encounter covered in sticky pink tar. This tar will burn skin if it is not quickly washed off.