# Ents reproducing



## tom_bombadil (May 3, 2002)

imagine ents reproducing the sheer mechanics of it are mind bogoling. how would they do it. i was recently thiking how could it work. please help me and suggest a few ideas


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## chrysophalax (May 3, 2002)

Cross-pollination?


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## Zale (May 3, 2002)

I must confess I have never thought about how Ents reproduce. Most trees do it asexually (i.e. fruit of some kind). So the question is, just what human characteristics do Ents share?


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## Dûndorer (May 3, 2002)

i cant picture an ent doing IT the way humans do (and i dont want to).


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## Gamil Zirak (May 3, 2002)

I would think that the ents tend to be more like trees than humans when it comes to procreation. Since I hated biology, I'm not the best person to give you the just of making tree babies. However, I think that the trees are polinated and make seeds in the same way flowers do. All you need is a hive of bees and you're set for life.


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## Bilbo Baggins57 (May 3, 2002)

Hmm...Interesting question. Never really thought about it before. I gotta go w/ Zale though. Aesexual reproduction is my best guess.


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## Gamil Zirak (May 3, 2002)

Wait a minute. They don't have Entwives for nothing. Doesn't it say something about the number of Ents decreasing because they don't know where their Entwives went? I'm sure the don't have "relations" the same way people do though. It's probably not done for pleasure like us human folk.


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## chrysophalax (May 3, 2002)

Must have an interesting root system...........


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## tom_bombadil (May 4, 2002)

lol


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## TheFool (May 4, 2002)

If a tree.......................in the forest, and there's no-one around, is there any sound?


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## Elbereth (May 4, 2002)

Here is my theory...

The Ent and Entwife go into a field and plant themselves into the ground placing root like appendices into the soil. Underground their roots connect, allowing them to mate. To the outsider, one would think it was just two trees that are planted unusually close to one another...but we know otherwise  .


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## Hirila (May 4, 2002)

"On the left we see a tree, on the right a she-tree... And the thing you just stamped on was a little-tree."

For the reproduction of Ents I can hardly hold back the story of the flowers and the bees... 

LOL


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## Chymaera (May 5, 2002)

I am sure that however they did it, having Treebeard explain it at lenght would take all the fun out of it.


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## tom_bombadil (May 5, 2002)

lol


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## Mrs. Baggins (May 5, 2002)

Maybe its like with acorns falling off their branches.


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## Dûndorer (May 6, 2002)

we are thinking with our brain, not tolkien's. there could be any which way they reproduced. think about it. they could have just did it like a tree. OR, they could have heald hands and looked deep into each others eyes for a while. then an enting could have sprouted up out of the ground, and it was a wonder of middle earth how this mystyrious thing happenned.


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## Turgon (May 6, 2002)

Ooo.. Ooo.. I know this one - my parents told me about it when I was little - When a mummy tree and a daddy tree love each other very much - mmm... I forgot it - damn! Something to do with a stork though...


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## Dûndorer (May 7, 2002)

LOL

oh, and someone said acorns, but if ents just had acorns to plant. why would they need a female ent?


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## wonko (May 7, 2002)

upon reading this topic i was completely floored... i was seriously just about to ask that same question... i think that they either reproduce through some pollination method or they have some hidden appendages that they use... doesn't matter though because there are no more entwives


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## Eithne (May 7, 2002)

hmm...  yeah but honestly... i really don't want to know... aahh evil thoughts evil thoughts... lol


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## Ancalagon (May 7, 2002)

I think it just depends on which 'seedlings' are the strongest swimmers


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## tom_bombadil (May 8, 2002)

lol how they do it is hard to work out but what about an entwife giving birth


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## wonko (May 8, 2002)

hehehe, are you sure she gives birth or does she drop fruit on the ground? its hard to tell what would happen...what exactly does an entwife look like?


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## Tarien (May 18, 2002)

Easy! Not all plants are a-sexual. Sometimes, the pollen and eggs are in different plants, not just in different parts of the plant. 

So, since Ents can move, I would assume they would just rub against each other, or something like that. Then voila! Pregnant Entwife, which would show by an increasingly large fruit. When gestation complete, fruit drops to ground, is pushed further in by Mommy's toe, and seed hatches, the surrounding soil inriched by the decaying fruit covering. Purrfectly normal likkle tree, or, in this case, Enting. 

Then begins the life stages:
1. Infant, which is fed by rich soil from fruit's decay.
2. Toddler, is just getting roots out of soil and beginning to walk, though not very well.
3. Youngling (as called by Master Yoda in AOTC, which I saw on PREMIER NITE! GO ME! Sorry.) can walk, is learning language and history from elders.
4. Ent, fully grown and educated.


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## tom_bombadil (May 19, 2002)

lol


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## I.am.Smeagol (May 19, 2002)

Hah! Good one Tarien!


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## Firawyn (Jul 21, 2008)

*Some questions on Ents*

Hey, I was thinking alot about Ents this week (don't ask me why) and a thought occurred to me: Most trees and plants (not all, one exception I can think of being Holly Bushes) are asexual, meaning they don't need an opposite sex tree or plant to reproduce. However, in TTT, Treebeard talks about loosing the Ent Wives, and thus there had not been Entlings for some time - So my question is...well... "What the heck?"


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## Elthir (Jul 21, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

Well Ents are not actually trees of course (not that you said they were), and it seems apparent that to have Entings, both Ents and Entwives are needed.

I don't know that we necessarily need to theorize in detail regarding Entish reproduction...

... though I bet someone will


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## HLGStrider (Jul 21, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

Technically don't trees have male and female parts? I mean, it's been a long time since high school science/botany, but some plants can't fertilize themselves and need insects and wind to take the pollen from plant to plant in order to reproduce. . . so maybe Ents just go up and sneeze on their Entwives .

Just a thought. 

I doubt it is anything like that, but I thought it was interesting.


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## YayGollum (Jul 21, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

Well, they are a People, not a Plant Type or a Plant People, so they don't have to be too different from the other Peoples. I was never especially satisfied with the descriptions I got of the Ents. They were basically giant human shaped (except that they came with nine toes), but they had plantish additions. I wasn't really sure if they were supposed to be part plant, or if they were clothing themselves with plants, decorating their beards with moss.  If they are part plant, what are any of their systems like? Not just the reproductive one. If I dissected one of these, would he have lungs or intestines? It seems likely. But would the lungs and intestines be made out of wood? Were their eyes made of wood? Speaking of sneezing, did they produce mucus? If not, did they have a more plantish replacement? 

The conclusion that I enjoy drawing is that they are basically People, but because Yavanna whined, Eru said, "Fine! Shut up. Sketch me up some basic ideas on what you want these things to look like. Let me go rustle up some souls to imprison in these things for until my favorite Children show up. Some up them might even be woken up by my favorites. If they happen to walk by." Instead of magically poofing souls out of nothing, as he did for elves, humans, and even the unanticipated Dwarves, though, he merely asked for volunteers from the legion of Ainur who were still out in the Void. Yavanna had many admirers out there. Any creepy magicalness of Ents merely comes from the fact that they are actually imprisoned Ainur.


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## Firawyn (Jul 24, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

If Eru can mess with biology with Elves to make them live longer, Dwarves to make them short, Hobbits to make them simple, than he could very easily have made Ents that don't need an opposite sex to reproduce. 

@Elgee, I'm sure you are aware that the Ents had pollen and sun and so-on. And very few plants need an "opposite sex" to reproduce. The sun and soil and water help them grow, and when they bloom and their seeds, nuts, flowers, etc fall, they turn into new plants. I think that's what makes plant life so amazing... which I can't believe I just said because as a rule (I have seasonal allergies) I hate plants.


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## HLGStrider (Jul 24, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

A lot of them need another plant, however. I think a lot of plants can't self-pollinate. That's what bees are for.

He could've made Ents that don't need to sexually reproduce, but for that matter he could've made Humans that way . . . or Elves . .. or horses. . .

Apparently Eru liked the idea of sexual reproduction. Can't really blame him. I sort of like it too. . .


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## Prince of Cats (Jul 24, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

Well, there are many species such as Osage orange and hemp where plants are either male or female (with the occasional hermaphrodite)

Even if plants can self pollinate, they usually (by the morphology of their flowers or placement of their cones) prefer to mate with others, and for good reason. If you are producing asexually it is comparable to inbreeding, where mating with other ancestries allows for biodiversity -> microevolution so that their offspring can adapt to a changing environment. In terms of Tolkien's world, where Ents were souls of Maia?, a near clone of yourself or an 'inbreed' seed might not be seen fit for a new soul?


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## Firawyn (Jul 25, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

Hummm...I can see that. 






And Elgee - Aren't you a mod!?! TMI!


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## HLGStrider (Jul 25, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

Bats her eyes innocently, Mod and Mom.


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## Firawyn (Jul 26, 2008)

*Re: Some questions on Ents*

I noticed! Gosh. *shakes head* It's better if I don't reproduce.


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## HLGStrider (Aug 27, 2008)

Merged two similar threads, btw.


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## Ingwë (Aug 28, 2008)

I have never thought about their reproduction before. They are neither humans nor trees but a something in the middle. Personally I don't think they have sex the way humans do. Having in mind there are ents and entwives and some plans need insects to fertilise themselves, I think that ents transferred pollen to the entwives without any bees. Maybe the transfer was some kind of ritual or something similar to sex.


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## Prince of Cats (Aug 28, 2008)

It's pretty much the same thing as humans in flowering plants except the genitals and uteruses are on the flowers


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## Illuin (Aug 29, 2008)

> by Ingwë
> _I have never thought about their reproduction before. They are neither humans nor trees but a something in the middle. Personally I don't think they have sex the way humans do._


 

Personally; I’m not letting my mind drift too far down that road . That’s right up there with the thought of female Orcs.


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## Ingwë (Aug 29, 2008)

Illuin said:


> Personally; I’m not letting my mind drift too far down that road . That’s right up there with the thought of female Orcs.


I have never thought about that, too  Female Orcs?  Why don't you start a thread


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## HLGStrider (Aug 29, 2008)

http://www.thetolkienforum.com/showthread.php?t=6926&highlight=orc

already been thought of.


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## Illuin (Aug 29, 2008)

> Ingwë
> _I have never thought about that, too  Female Orcs?  Why don't you start a thread _


 
Nah, there wouldn’t be much to discuss:

_"But of those unhappy ones who were ensnared by Melkor little is known of a certainty. For who among the living has descended into the pits of Utumno, or has explored the darkness of the counsels of Melkor? Yet it is held true by the wise of Eressea, that all those of the Quendi who came into the hands of Melkor, ere Utumno was broken, were put there into prison, and by slow arts of cruelty were corrupted and enslaved; and thus did Melkor breed the hideous race of Orcs in envy and mockery of the Elves, of whom they were afterwards the bitterest foes.* For the Orcs had life and multiplied after the manner of the Children of Iluvatar*; and naught that had life of its own, nor the semblence of life, could ever Melkor make since his rebellion in the Ainulindale before the Beginning: so say the wise."_ -*The Silmarillion, Of the Coming of the Elves* 

Pretty scary thought; huh?


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## Illuin (Aug 29, 2008)

I guess The Ranger beat me to it


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## Firawyn (Aug 29, 2008)

Illuin said:


> Personally; I’m not letting my mind drift too far down that road . That’s right up there with the thought of female Orcs.



Haha! You know everytime I think about people's sensitivity to talking about "that", I think about my favorite TV show of all time, _Firefly_, and of something Inara (who is a Registered Companion, aka well mannered whore) said in the _Heart of Gold_ episode:

_"One of the virtues of not being puritanical about sex is not being embarrassed afterwards. You should look into it." _


*all smiles*
Fir-


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## Eledhwen (Aug 31, 2008)

Treebeard has a love of falling water washing through him as well as vessels for drinking. This leads me to speculate that Ent reproduction is similar to that of ancient ferns and mosses, namely Gametophyte reproduction, where the plants have sperm and egg gametes, which wash off in rain and then bond together to form a zygote (plant 'embryo'). This then grows into the new, individual plant. It would account for the existence of Entwives, without the need to imagine a human-style physical relationship.


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## Prince of Cats (Aug 31, 2008)

Eledhwen said:


> It would account for the existence of Entwives, without the need to imagine a human-style physical relationship.



But that takes away all the fun!!


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## HLGStrider (Aug 31, 2008)

I guess telling Treebeard to take a cold shower wouldn't do much good then . . .


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## Illuin (Aug 31, 2008)

> by HLGStrider
> _I guess telling Treebeard to take a cold shower wouldn't do much good then . . ._


 
Nah, that would just make him huorny. 

(I know, that was bad )


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## Firawyn (Aug 31, 2008)

Elgee! Illuin! Guys! That's just wrong!  

However, Eledhwen makes a good case...I think she's after your job, oh DA Strider.


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## Tar-Surion (Sep 5, 2008)

In the end it gets down to the simple matter of if Ents are animals or plants. If animals they will have sex as animals do, if plants they'll do it like plants.

Since they move around and don't appear to photosynthesize for a living and were apparently created to defend the forests from the other children of Illuvatar, my take is that they are animals and that they therefore have babies like animals.

That gives them considerable leeway: they could lay eggs/seeds like reptiles or have young that go through a complicated life cycle like insects; perhaps spending their first twenty years or so as trees and then coming to life and being Ents, for example. 

Whatever the case they are unique even among the free peoples, among whom enthusiasm for reproduction is conspicuous by its absence, in being so uninterested in the perpetuation of their species that the sexes separated permanently. 

Such a species is surely doomed. Not only did they fail in their appointed task of defending the forests, but they failed even to defend themselves from the slow decay of time by keeping their numbers up.


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