Kaluthin

Kaluthin was a wavy, grass-like plant created by Darth Rivan to modify the poisonous atmosphere and climate of Almas. Its stalk was green, and its leaves were purple in the center, but turned to green on the edges. The stalk was also covered in white patches of phosphorous deposits which glowed. As Almas was completely covered in the plant (except for Rivan's Sith fortress area, where nothing alive could thrive), this caused the planet to emit its own gentle light, described as an aura.

Kaluthin had kilometers-deep taproots, which not only allowed the plant to draw nourishment from the planet's subterranean water, but also drew up heat from the planet's core. The plant drew in phosphorous and methane from the atmosphere. The phosphorous formed the glowing deposits, while the methane was synthesized by the Kaluthin, releasing oxygen back into the atmosphere.

Despite being created by Darth Rivan, the kaluthin would not grow anywhere near his fortress. In fact, towards the end of the Republic, it was discovered that the dead area of the planet was slowly growing.

The plant's efficiency for terraforming a planet far from its sun for not only atmosphere, but heat and light as well drew attention from the galactic scientific community. The city of Forard was established on a big patch of kaluthin, using mainly tracked droids as other droids had problems when walking on kaluthin. A research station was established near Forard to study the plant, attracting the likes of kaluthin-interested researcher Gilloma and botanic droid S2P-O3O.

Text and facts from the “Kaluthin” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.