Shampoo

"Hey lover boy, you noticed, didya? We come here by nuclear powered spaceship. Then we travel by bamboo . . . well . . . shampoo, blimp. Now we're down on our feet. Pretty soon it'll be chipping flint, you mark my words. And walking on our knuckles."

- Cynthia Whitlock

Shampoo is a tall species of grass, cultivated on the Venusian continent of Gagarin by indigenous and colonial Humans alike. Its English name is a play on the similar bamboo plant, coined by American settlers who struggled with the Kartahownian word for this species, not just as a reference to being a soap product. Most iconically, it's used as a building material, or textile, but also has culinary purposes as a source of sugar, oil, animal feed, and even for direct consumption. In the last case it's likened to being a sweeter version of asparagus.

Appearances

 * The Sky People, by S. M. Stirling (2006)