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Vine
VineTheRuins
Naming
Others Predatory Vine
Binomen Unknown (probably inexistent)
Morphology
Average height Unknown
Intelligence
Sentience Unknown
Sapience Sapient
Aggressivity Extreme
Ecology
Habitat Northern part of the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico
Diet Carnivorous
Lifespan Unknown
Subspecies None
Status Data Deficient
Behind the Scenes
Universe The Ruins
Created by Scott Smith
Performed by Karen Strassman

The "Vines" are an unnamed species of sapient parasitic flora that appears in the book and film adaptions of The Ruins.

They are incredibly aggressive and will use tactics such as deception to lure fresh prey into their reach.

Reproduction[]

There are three ways that normal plants reproduce. Most plants reproduce by producing seeds, which requires pollination, and pollination requires animals, birds, insects, etc., to carry the pollen from one plant to another. Since living creatures avoided these vines at all costs, pollination between flowers on the vines could only occur by wind transport.

Some plants can spread underground by sending runners (also known as stolons), like most common grasses, or by growing tubers or bulbs, like potatoes and onions.

A third method of spreading is by walking, where the plant produces offshoots, like vines, that take root wherever they touch ground. The vines at the ruins could have reproduced and/or spread by any of these means.

A fourth way the vines seemed to be spreading is by producing offshoots that take root whenever they touch skin. Then, like some insects, they burrow into the skin and grow inside the host, utilizing moisture and nutrients within the host to propagate themselves.

In Mayan Culture[]

Since the ruins seen in both the books and the movie are Mayan, the vines were probably related in someway to the ancient Mayan practice of Blood Sacrifice. One of the more popular theories states that the vines may have acquired their taste for blood from Mayan sacrifices, while other suggests that the Mayans may have—as the present day's natives do—worshipped the vines, seeing them as evidence either of divine purpose or avatars of the divine themselves. Natives in the modern day have taken to salting the earth around the ruins to prevent their further spread, however, and anyone or anything that crosses this line is immediately executed regardless of whether they came into contact with the vines or not.

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