Locomotive meat plant

The locomotive meat plant is a variety of meat plant that is capable of free movement and self-propulsion. The locomotive meat plant is the result of artificial engineering that triggered certain meat plants to evolve from a vegetative life form into a life form that was able to exercise gradual movement. Locomotive meat plants are now considered a common part of the wild fauna of Illuminatia.

These locomotive meat plants are able to detach from their root system and exercise primitive locomotive behaviors, such as crawling, rolling, hopping, or jumping. Locomotive meat plants exercise their motion-producing extremities and limbs in a way that develops muscular tissue in those limbs, producing additional protein-rich muscular material found to be desirable for harvesting for human consumption.

Many locomotive meat plant varieties might travel distances exceeding 4,000 KLU before pursuing a migration to return to the location of the root system the plant detached from earlier in the organism's lifespan in an apparent effort to augment the plant's nutrition intake from the soil as its photosynthetic nutrient intake declines in old age. Other meat plants simply plant new roots in the location of their new residence, assuming satisfactory soil conditions.

The movements of locomotive meat plants are entirely an instinctual response to outside stimuli such as sunlight, water, air pressure, and air movement. Some locomotive meat plants have even been observed to respond to sound. Locomotive meat plants, like all meat plants, possess no sense of self-awareness and have no ability to form thoughts or other cognitive processes. It is hypothesized that locomotive meat plants probably do not possess any evolved sense of sight, though it is understood that some meat plants have developed photoreceptor cells that might give the plant a rudimentary capability to respond to light and dark or possibly even visible movement in their environment.

Locomotive meat plants are an ideal source for protein for human consumption, as the plants can survive the harvesting of multiple limbs thanks to the ability of the limbs to regenerate. Since fruit-producing meat plants also naturally bear fruit which must be removed and is naturally replenished by the plant in successive growing seasons, no meat plant actually need be killed to be harvested for meat tissue. Locomotive meat plants generate the highest quality of animal-adjacent proteins available for the typical Illuminatian diet and play an important role in the ability of Illuminatians to practice complete veganism, with some notable voluntary exceptions.