Mipa Ayewll, Mipa Ayioang—New Plants, New Animals

This post containing some new Pandoran plants and animals is based mostly on the diligent and excellent work of our own Txawey, who clearly devoted many hours to making this information easily available to the community. If I might quote what he wrote in his post to LearnNa’vi.org:

 “As some of you may know, I was recently in Mo’ara for a period on vacation with my family. While there, I downloaded the Play Disney app on a whim and found a game for Mo’ara while waiting in line. Said game had a decently large Pandorapedia, so I figured why not take a look at it! After I was finished, I found several new entries for things we didn’t have before. Since they were all on my phone, I took screenshots (over 200!) and figured why not type them up into a document, so here they are!”

Txawey’s 200+ screenshots, where you’ll be able to find pictures of all these flora and fauna, can be found here.

I’ll add some information on pronunciation and etymology, but the descriptions are taken from the Play Disney Pandorapedia, as typed up for us by Txawey. Ngeyä fìtìkangkemìri a kosman seiyi irayo nìtxan, ma tsmuk!

FLORA

fyìpmaut (n., FYÌP.ma.ut) ‘squid fruit tree’

This comes from fyìp+ mauti ‘fruit’

fyìp (n.) ‘tendril, tentacle’

NOTE: Although in careful pronunciation this word has three syllables, colloquially it’s usually pronounced with two: FYÌP.mawt

Taxonomy: Octocrus Folliculus
Anatomy: A massive jungle tree that produces a large seed-pod covered in spiny blue protrusions. The seed pod is also notable for its eight 60cm-long tentacle-like fruit stalks that grow from the bottom.
Ecology: A staple of the Na’vi diet, the fruit harvested from the squid fruit tree is very versatile and can be prepared in many ways.
Ethnobotany: Eaten raw, these tubular fruits have a consistency of a mid 20th-century Terran fruit snack and has a slightly salty rhubarb like taste. The fruit can also be cut into wheels and dried and cured into a portable fruit-leather that Na’vi travelers often take with them on long journeys.

koaktutral (n., ko.AK.tut.ral) ’goblin thistle’

Comes from koaktu ‘old person’ + utral ‘tree’

So named because of the hunched shape and stooped appearance of the tree. (NOTE: There’s a typo in the Disney Pandorapedia entry: the final l is missing. I’ll notify them and hopefully the error can be corrected.)

Taxonomy: Cobalus Carduus
Size: Growing up to 4m high, spread of 3.5-4m
Anatomy: Growing in a hunched shape and supported by prop roots and topped with passiflora, the stooped appearance of the goblin thistle is prevalent during the bioluminescence of the evening. Its leaves are a bluish color, and its trunk is twisted and a brownish-grayish color.
Ecology: The passiflora topped goblin tree grows in a hunched shape and is supported by propped roots. During the bioluminescence of the evening, the stooped appearance of the thistle is more pronounced.
Ethnobotany: There are at least 12 goblin thistles in Mo’ara.

lanutral (n., LA.nut.ral) ‘dandetiger’

Comes from lan+ utral

lan (n.) ‘resin’

Taxonomy: Candea Inflata
Size: 12-15m tall, slender trunk of 0.5-1m, crown of tree is 3.5-4.6m.
Anatomy: Large tree with inflated trunk, elaborate bark, and long, slender tubular leaves in a cluster at the crown. Produces abundant resin in the trunk, which accumulates in leaf tips. When resin builds up, leaf tips glow brightly, indicating that resin will be released.
Ecology: Serves important ecosystem function by absorbing atmospheric toxins, which combine with plant oils to produce resin.
Ethnobotany: Resin is collected for use as an adhesive by Na’vi.

paysyul (n., PAY.syul) ‘water lily’

Comes from pay ‘water’ + syulang ‘flower’

Taxonomy: Inrigo Lilliam
Anatomy: Large and multi-colored with bisected petals and a distended, vein pod like bulb/stigma. Can be found in standing and running fresh-water locations throughout Pandora.
Ecology: This lovely, freshwater flower has such an alluring scent and such a colorful array of petals that it’s a natural attractant for small river fauna. The Na’vi often string their woven nets underneath the flower in shallow waters to easily snare small fish.
Ethnobotany: After careful study, the Xenobiologists and Ethnobotanists from Earth witnessed the Na’vi using the inrigo lilliam as floating bait stations. Industrious adolescent Na’vi will go down to local lakes, rivers, and streams where the inrigo lilliam are found, dive into the waters with their tackle, and string woven nets underneath the shallow waters where the flower lie. With patience, these young Na’vi hunters are able to easily snare small fish and shellfish that come to feed off the aquatic root systems of the plant.

rumaut (n. RU.ma.ut) ‘cannonball fruit tree’

From rum ‘ball’ + mauti ‘fruit’

Note: Similarly to fyìpmaut, this word is colloquially pronounced RU.mawt. This tree is easily confused with the very similar-sounding rumut ‘puffball tree.’ The two trees are different.

Taxonomy: Ecdurus Putamen Pomus
Size: Fruit is roughly 70cm long
Anatomy: Deciduous, fruit-bearing tree in the Valley of Mo’ara. Its fruit has an ombre-coloring of yellow to orange to red to purple and is decidedly one of the most difficult fruits to eat on Pandora. The fruit from this tree is likened to the Terran coconut.
Ecology: When fully ripe, the cannonball fruit is a multi-colored pod that has an incredibly thick and tough outer husk. Na’vi harvesters will prepare their party for harvesting the cannonball fruit and begin the arduous task of cracking the outer husk to retrieve the succulent and sweet meat inside.
Ethnobotany: The Cannonball tree gets its name from the peculiar way the Na’vi interact with its titular fruit. The most common way of getting to the fruit is to climb to the highest height of the cannonball tree and launch the fruit from the highest branch. With the right velocity, the husk will crack and the Na’vi will be able to insert sharpened branches and crack open the shell to reveal the fruit inside.

tsawksyul (n., TSAWK.syul) ‘sun lily’

From tsawke ‘sun’ + syulang ‘flower’

Taxonomy: Stella Lilliam
Size: Flower up to 2m in height
Anatomy: Flower has primarily yellow petals, giving the opened flower a vaguely sun-like appearance. Other specimens have petals cut through with vibrant hues of magenta and cyan.
Ecology: A hearty multi-petalled bloom, this sun-loving flower is a common sight throughout the Valley of Mo’ara.
Ethnobotany: Ethnobotanists from Earth have found that this lovely flower (amongst other similar flora) is commonly used by Na’vi to create necklaces, rings, and other personal ornaments.

tumpasuk (n., TUM.pa.suk) ’celia fruit tree’

From tun ‘red-orange’ + pasuk ‘berry’

Note that while the primary stress is on the first syllable TUM, there’s secondary stress on PA. The stress pattern is the same as in the English word “strawberry.”

Taxonomy: Pampinus Bacca Acinum
Anatomy: Multi-trunked, deciduous tree with long, hanging vines from which grow massive seed pods.
Ecology: Squat, thick-trunked tree with multiple thick branches. It produces a 30cm long bulbous pod that holds a tendril-like strand of edible seeds/berries. A common food source for tetrapteron and prolemuris.
Ethnobotany: The Na’vi gather the seed berries by climbing into the trees, dangling upside-down from the branches and cutting the strand out of the pod from the inside. Another Na’vi will be under the pod on the ground and will catch the falling seed berry strand in a woven net to not damage the ripe fruit.

FAUNA

fyuatx (n., fyu.ATX) ‘anemonoid’

Size: Up to 2m in diameter
Anatomy: Invertebrate with small toxic tentacles for feeding. Bioluminescence in myriad of pastel colors.
Ecology: Small fish are attracted by bioluminescence into tentacles and eaten.

lortsyal (n., LOR.tsyal) ‘shimmyfly’

From lor ‘beautiful’ + tsyal ‘wing’

Size: Average size of up to 1m wingspan
Anatomy: Eight-winged insect with long antennae. Its body is built like Terran insects and divided into a head and thorax. The abdomen portion of the shimmyfly is constructed of two smaller vane-like hindwings and a long rudder-like tail.
Ecology: An iridescent and glimmering Pandoran version of the terran Lepidoptera (butterfly), this delicate creature gracefully flies through the Valley of Mo’ara on multiple glowing, almost crystalline wings.

nalutsa (n., na.LU.tsa)

Size: Average size of up to 40m long
Anatomy: Massive and armored with no visible dorsal fin, a single set of flippers and a long tail ending in jagged and flared flukes. A massive set of jaws that contain sword-length teeth for rending and tearing prey. Plated exoskeleton, not dissimilar to the shell of a turtle.
Ecology: A cousin of the more elusive and fierce akula, this six-gilled ocean behemoth can be seen leaping out of the near-shore waters. Birthing and parenting behaviors are not dissimilar to those of orca whales on Earth.

skuka (n., SKU.ka) ‘sagittaria’

Size: Average length of 1.2m
Anatomy: Cephalopod-like with 14 muscular tentacles, 10 radiating out from the underside of the body, primarily for locomotion, and four near the mouth for prey attraction and feeding. A large nautilus-like shell houses the body, which can retract fully for protection.
Ecology: A predator, this cephalopod-type creature has a hard exterior which is exposed to the air. Long tentacles float calmly in the water. The means of hunting prey, which mostly consists of small flying creatures, is highly specialized and unique.

srakat (n., SRA.kat). ‘dinicthoid’

Size: Up to 1m long
Anatomy: Semi-transparent body revealing spinal column and inner organs. Heavily armored with triangular, blade-like teeth.
Ecology: Voracious predator. Because of fierceness and thick armor composed of cartilage, it can feed on both smaller and larger fish. Can also feed on plant life, including fallen seeds and pods.

tsiki (n., TSI.ki) ‘reef tick’

Size: Average size of 60 cm
Anatomy: A multi-segmented underwater insect with four legs, two large main eyes, and two smaller eyes. This creature has smaller leg-like appendages near its mouth that act as feeding mandibles and are normally iridescent in color ranging in hues of bright metallic greens and blues.
Ecology: This bottom feeder, like the Terran moray eel to the great white shark, has a symbiotic relationship with the sagittaria. What scraps the sagittaria leaves from their own feeding, the reef tick will eat.

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32 Responses to Mipa Ayewll, Mipa Ayioang—New Plants, New Animals

  1. Txawey says:

    nìprrte’ ma Karyu ulte melì’uri amip seiyi irayo! 😀

  2. Tirea Aean says:

    This is awesome! Wou!

  3. Haha lebovich says:

    Kaltxì Pawl I’m learning the language and can you give me tips and advices to how to learn Na’vi?

    In addition I’m writing a book about what happened after the first avatar. https://my.w.tt/nwJlP9y4kY
    I will appreciate if you will read it.
    If you like it can you please send me an email to this address : haya8892@walla.com

    • Pawl says:

      Thanks for your interest in Na’vi, Haya. To get started learning it, you might take a look at the series of Na’vi classes available on YouTube. The first one is here:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goxi2Vejrks

      You’ll also find lots of information, and perhaps connect with a tutor or mentor who can help you, by visiting LearnNavi.org. Nivume nìprrte’! Happy learning!

  4. Wind12 says:

    Kosman nìwotx. 🙂 Mo’araru lu pxaya txantsana ayu.

  5. Plumps (sgm) says:

    Ma karyu,

    tsaylì’uri amip irayo nìtxan nang. Ulte Txaweyìl sat stolarsìm a fì’uri irayo nìlun nìteng!

    Tsoleri oe … Nalutsal lahea ioangti alu akula tare ìlä fìpamrel. Srake lu awngaru aysäomum alahe a fìioangteri?

    Leioaefa.

    • Pawl says:

      Irayo, ma Stefan.

      Akulari nìkeftxo ke längu oer kea aysäomum alahe. Kxawm tsatsun oe rivun nì’ul fa fwa vin tsat ta aysapo a lu for tsaysäomum. Fmasyi!

  6. Brandon says:

    I’m not joking when I say this, but I just went into my YouTube to find a comment I left about how a guy thought the Na’vi connected their actual hair to a tree. (He’s a Flat-Earther, so you shouldn’t expect much.) Anyway, I had been thinking about your previous entry about KURU. I was going to suggest that such mean “tendril,” and here you are, you sly palulukantsyìp. So, I suggest that KURU be the word for the Na’vi’s tendrils, in THEIR tswin. (Literally, I called them “small, semi-autonomous, neuro-biological tendrils.”)

    • Pawl says:

      Kaltxì, ma Brandon. Thanks for your suggestion, and apologies for the extremely late reply. I agree–kuru could be a good word for tendril. BUT it definitely means queue. Some things are out of my hands. 😊

  7. Melissa Dewhurst says:

    it’s actually called neuro queue (tswin) which has tenteral nerves endings also nari si I’m not sure if that word would fit ìì hìtxa ma toktor Pawl tenderals nìnavi pelì’u???

  8. Angel says:

    Kaltxì ma Paul,

    Irayo nìtxan for all of the names! I have been craving this information since I went to Pandora!!
    I have a question regarding the cannonball tree — is this the blue, leafy one we see in Pandora? The Flora & Fauna guide lists it as a Puffball tree, but it doesn’t look anything like the ones in the movie, which are red hued, do not have leaves on the ball shape, and also have yellow vines wrapping around them.

    I also wish to know about other plants. When I asked Pandoran staff about the plants *not* listed in their guide, and are found on the Kaspavan River, this is what I got:

    Illuminated Shrub Bed (myriad of colors, pastels and orange)
    Fountain Orchid (Small, almost looks like spider with 12 spines and “webbing” between the spines)
    Hammerhead (Large leaves with smaller leafs on the larger ones, and a blossom in the midle).

    Can you verify the Na’vi names for these and also if the English names are correct? I have also heard they fall under a category called “fireworks plants”.

  9. Angel says:

    Kaltxì ma Paul,

    Sorry for writing again, but I didn’t notice the pictures link until after I wrote that post. I spent more time looking through it, but now I have both questions and other comments.

    First, I question the accuracy of Disney’s app for a couple of reasons and would love a second, but more official, source of information:

    1. The flower they used for the picture of the “Stella Liliam” (Spelling from the pamphlet) does not match the drawing in their Pandora pamphlet. Instead, the drawing looks like this flower here, which is also on the River Journey:
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/43153185@N00/34784151421/in/album-72157684029031955/
    Unfortunately there is no way to tell which flower is yellow, as the “sun lily” is never seen outside, in the sun. However, based on just the heigh description of 2 meters, I figure the bigger flower must be the corect one as labeled. If so, the plant in the drawing and picture above isn’t the stella liliam; can you please tell us what it is?

    –> This leads me to my main question. Do the Avatar staff only send you descriptions of the plants and animals, or do they send you pictures so you can see what you’re naming? If so I’d love confirmation of which plant is really what.

    2. The lionberry is labeled as something else, “sari”. Is this no longer called a lionberry, or am I mistaken?

    Thank you for any and all answers!!

    • Pawl says:

      Kaltxì ngaru, ma Angel! Thanks for your questions, and my apologies for the late reply.

      I’m afraid I’m not the expert on Pandoran flora, so for most of your questions I’ll have to check with the Avatar people who know more about such things than I do. When I receive requests for Na’vi plant and animal names I sometimes get pictures along with the descriptions and sometimes not. I will check my archives to see if I can answer any of your queries. But I’m under the gun right now to get some other work done, so it may be a while longer before I can get to this. Thanks for your patience.

      • Angel says:

        Kaltxì, irayo nìtxan for your reply, it wasn’t so late at all! 😀

        I did realize I made one mistake–the one I thought was a lionberry is in fact a hermit bud. Still, I question the name “sari” and why the English name is not written at all. I must presume sari the Na’vi name?

      • Angel says:

        Kaltxì ma Paul,

        I was wondering you had a moment to answer this question above about the plants? ^-^ irayo, thank you so much!!

        • Pawl says:

          Kaltxì, ma Angel . . . ulte oeru txoa livu! Oh dear. My apologies that it’s been half a year since you asked your questions about Pandoran flora. 😟 Let me see what I can do to get you some answers. I’ll try to do some research on my own, but I’ll need to get a lot of the answers from people who know more about such things than I do. And given the current situation, that might not be easy to do. So unfortunately I can’t guarantee anything. I’ll do my best, though. Thanks for the reminder!

      • Kaltxì karyu Pawl!

        I love learning about Pandoran plants and I had another question regarding them. Out of all those named, one plant we still don’t have a confirmed name for is the large, purple leafy one that Neytiri drinks water out of in front of Jake. Please, can you tell us what that plant is? irayo nìtxan!

  10. Tirea Aean says:

    Kaltxì ma Pawl,

    I’m in the process of adding these to the Dictionary in the Flora and Fauna appendices. (SO late! but hey, better late than never, I suppose :D)

    I noticed that “nalutsa” has no definition or name listed like the others. What should I put for the definition of nalutsa?

    Irayo!

    • Txawey says:

      I just ran through, and based off of my screenshots, the English version of nalutsa is simply nalutsa: it seems in this case the Na’vi and human names are the same

      • Tirea Aean says:

        That seems legit.

        Although it seems somewhat… weird (and not useful?), to have a Dictionary definition like this one:

        nalutsa: [‘na.lu.tsa] PF n. nalutsa

        hrh

        • Vawmataw says:

          Good question. What is a nalutsa?
          Based on the description it looks like a shark (also akula means shark in two languages). However, I’m not good at it. hrh

          • Vawmataw says:

            Maybe even a shark without a fin because there is none. Or a whale without a fin?

            n. nalutsa
            *monstruous sea creature*

    • Angel DrowElfMorwen says:

      The nalutsa does have a description like the others, but maybe you have to look for it lower? But I know it’s there. 🙂

      • Tirea Aean says:

        I did see the description of it, but the entry/declaration did not have an English name or translation listed (it’s the only such word in this list). For example, the previous entry before it and next entry after it, juxtaposed:

        lortsyal (n., LOR.tsyal) ‘shimmyfly’

        nalutsa (n., na.LU.tsa)

        skuka (n., SKU.ka) ‘sagittaria’

        • Angel DrowElfMorwen says:

          It is my thought that maybe the humans have only *heard* of the nalutsa through the Na’vi, and haven’t had the chance to encounter and study one yet–hence, they’re reluctant to name it. Same with the ilu.

          • Tirea Aean says:

            I believe you may be right. Now that you mention it, the definition we currently have for ilu is:

            ilu [ˈi.lu] n. large plesiosaurlike sea creature

            So perhaps I could make the definition for nalutsa similar to that one, like this:

            nalutsa [na.’lu.tsa] n. large armored whalelike sea creature

            Or even, use the same definition that Dict-Na’vi currently uses:

            nalutsa [na.’lu.tsa] n. Nalutsa (whale-like Pandoran sea creature)

  11. Wllìm says:

    > koaktutral (n., ko.AK.tut.ral) ’goblin thistle’

    Sorry for commenting on this old blogpost, but I was just reviewing vocabulary when I noticed that the stress of koaktutral is different from koaktu (which is in the dictionaries as KO.ak.tu) and koak (KO.ak). Is this a typo or simply an exception?

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