Philip K Dick's "Piper in the Woods" (short story, free): A world that turns men into plants!

Asteroid Y-3 in asteroid belt is actually an earth-like world - earth gravity, natural air & water, native animals & plants, ... Even native intelligent inhabitants, probably descended from Martians.

Man has set up a sort of immigration station there, The Garrison. All outer space traffic is cleared here.

A mysterious contagion has began affecting the men working here: they claim they've become plants, but are otherwise rational; they bask in the sunlight all day & don't work; it's impossible to awaken them from sleep at night.

Dr Henry Harris on earth is assigned the job of unraveling the mystery. He will succeed, with the results you can already guess...

See also.

1. John Taine's "The Ultimate Catalyst": Technology to actually turn men into plants! Set in a jungle in South America.

Fact sheet.

First published: Imagination, February 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Philip K Dick.