Plants of Mars?

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When I originally started planning the designs of a martian landscape I wanted to make the plant life a mix between something that was recognizable but obviously alien in its initial look. I wanted to keep the trees the same but dressing them to look slightly different, but the actual smaller vegetation for flowering plants, fungus and bushes.
I start searching around for something that would be suitable that was readily available and easy to get hold of, so ordering things off the internet wasn't really a option.

I looked at artificial flowers but sadly only a handful of what I found would be suitable for, however I did find the potpourri contained some interesting plant material that works both as familiar and alien plant life.

A few years ago I had a Skype call with a Mars expert Prof. Lewis Dartnell about what could Mars be like if it was a habitable planet? He theorised that if Mars had developed into a sustainable planet with echo systems and environments, it would be very similar to Earth, with blue oceans and sky and the vegetation would still be green.

Taking our conversation into account, I've always kept my eyes open for unusual natural plants and trees as references to try create more variations.
I also kept my eyes open for new items to turn into new unusual alien looking plants, one of these new additions is the pine cone from a lawson cypress that I found along the perimeter of Blackpool Zoo.






Nerve Plant

Dragon Blood Trees





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