Everything eventually ends up in the treemouth. Other plants fire seeds when dying for example 432a by falling too far out of the Smoke Ring. There are tropisms. They fruit and scatter seed only at the tuft that is closest to the Smoke Ring medium. This apparently ancient organism has several stages in its life cycle, some of which are hemi-parasitic.
Spores drift through space, land on planets and turn into pods.
A seed pod, growing overnight, can duplicate life forms down to the smallest visible blemish or cherished secret memory, reducing the slumbering original to dust. Pods lack human emotions, though, seeking only to grow more pods and substitute them for other beings. This life form takes over whole planets, wiping out complete populations of its original inhabitants. According to the pod-beings there are substantial benefits of being replaced. The loss of individuality, love and pleasure are a small price to pay for the absence of anger, misery and hatred.