Houseplants. Houseplants also work.

[melannen]

If your favorite character was a tree, what kind of tree would they be?

The temptation is to say Methos is, like, a bristlecone pine, but I think he's more like one of those big ancient quaking aspen complexes - looks young and unimpressive on the surface, but there's a whole lot of old secrets hidden underneath.

Duncan Macleod is a Scots pine.

Comments

[hannah]

Weirdly enough, I'm watching Deadwood, wherein one character does say at one point, "I wish I was a fucking tree."

[melannen]

But what kind??

[hannah]

Knowing the character, she'd be something strong but gnarled, without much leaf cover or shade that still makes beautiful colors. I don't know what trees from the Black Hills fit that description, though I'm sure there's something.

[lannamichaels]

Wen Ning is that plant at my old job that I didn't realize was plastic for... a long period of time. XD

[melannen]

Awww, that's mean.

Wen Ning is the fancy Crassula I have on my windowsill that I've kept watering for several months now even though I'm 99% sure it's really truly dead.

Wen Yuan is a radish!

[lannamichaels]

Wen Yuan is absolutely a radish.

[sunlit_stone]

I think Benton Fraser must be a maple, if only for the symbolism. (I know very little about trees, so I can't sort Ray... let's say something short and spiny. And definitely not an evergreen, which I think Fraser would actually be.)

[melannen]

I think everybody assumes Fraser is a maple, but he's from the far north - I think he's a taiga tree, instead. (Not a Fraser fir, sadly, that's from Appalachia.) Maybe a tamarack larch. Chicago is just at the absolute southern limit of their home range.

[sunlit_stone]

Oh, I like that! Plus I googled the tree, and it looks simultaneously friendly and like it's about to start chasing you, so I think it fits perfectly :)

[melannen]

It's also a sort misfit tree - a conifer that drops it's leaves in fall - and very good at establishing itself in burnt-over ground and marginal places you wouldn't expect it.

Still not sure about the Rays though.

Actually, maybe RayK is the sugar maple - colorful on the outside, sweet on the inside, more Canadian than you'd realize.

Which maybe makes RayV a sweetgum? Sweet and spiky, and you could almost think it's a maple if you didn't pay attention but it doesn't grow well in the north. Except it doesn't grow in Chicago either. Hmmm. What tree thrives in Chicago, Vegas, and Florida??

ETA: no, belay that, rayV is a sycamore: you could also confuse it for maple except for a very obvious tendency to go bald, and its seed balls look spiky but are actually full of fluff. It ranges from Chicago to Florida and grows in Vegas but not well. ;)

[sunlit_stone]

Hee! This is all perfect. And yes, I love RayK as a sugar maple <3 Though I bet you he bitches about using real maple syrup instead of pancake syrup or the like :P

[beccaelizabeth]

👍

[cuddyclothes]

Bertie Wooster would be a Japanese maple - if you saw one, you'd know why. Beautiful, unusual and hardy.

Jeeves would be a stately oak.

[melannen]

Oh, yes, those both sound right.

Although our Japanese maple tries to have babies all over the yard every year, which isn't very Wooster of it. :D