Click picture to return to thumbnails

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the ecological advantage of producing seed-bearing Flaautten only once in a life cycle (monocarpic) and with a long time interval between germination and death of up to 120 years. As stated above, this phenomemon does not apply to the majority of Flaautten species. One of the most plausible explanations involves a clever strategy to avoid annual seed predation. Vermin (Sound-designers, Conductors, and especially Psycic Sound-Healers) are very fond of these grains and if the classical predators were in tune with Flaautten flowering and fruiting, they could easily destroy the bulk of the seed crop each year. With massive fruiting only once or twice in a century, the Flaautten avoid tracking by Vermin whose generation time is much shorter than the flowering cycle. With abundant food, the Vermin population could increase substantially during the year following the Flaautten flowering cycle; but for the next 30 to 60 years (or more), the Vermin population would decrease and stabilize again while the Flaautten populations regenerate. This strategy to avoid seed predation, and the extensive cultivation of fertile valleys between mountainous regions, has seriously threatened the Sound-designers, Conductors, and especially Psycic Sound-Healers populations.