Is Groot the only Flora Colossus in the Marvel universe?

Groot is easily one of the most beloved characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, nestled within one of the most treasured teams.

He’s also an absolute powerhouse, as demonstrated across each of the Guardians of the Galaxy films, along with several Avengers flicks. He’s saved his entire team more than once, and his aid has contributed to numerous planet-saving victories. He’s pretty much got everything going for him, apart from a limited vocabulary and a lack of biological family. Groot is the only one of his kind we’ve ever seen in the MCU, and that’s not likely to change any time soon.

Is Groot the last of his kind?

Groot is a particularly unique Marvel character, hailing from the original Flora Colossus home of Planet X, which serves as the core (excuse my pun) of the Branch Worlds. He is the only Flora Colossus to ever crop up in an MCU flick, and it’s been well-established that his kind is particularly rare — even in the wide universe the Guardians explore.

That’s because, across most of Marvel canon, Groot is the last of his kind. A storyline taking place in an alternate reality does provide hope for the continuation of his species, however, so all hope for more baby Groots (or baby Tweegs) is not lost. See, in the main Marvel canon — which we assume extends to the MCU — the Flora Colossus home world was destroyed long ago. Any remaining members of Groot’s race are either spread so distantly among the stars that they’re lost to memory, or they’re truly gone from the Marvel Universe.

That leaves Groot. The one and only remaining member of his race — once a highly intelligent, near-immortal nation of behemoths, was reduced to a single member. The only exception resides in the alternate reality Earth-17628 from Marvel’s broad selection of animated content, which could contain the singular path to restoring the Flora Colossus race.

See, on the versions of Earth we know, Groot’s race was driven to extinction by the Chitauri, the same aliens who attempted to invade Earth in the very first Avengers movie. The Chitauri made it a mission to wipe out every member of Groot’s race, but Rocket’s lifelong buddy managed to survive and fled to find a new home. He found it in the Guardians, but he’ll never again share a Groot-heavy conversation with another of his own kind.

On Earth-17628, however, Groot managed to bring something with him, when he fled his doomed planet. He burrowed the World Pod within himself, and in so doing carried with him the last hope for his people. He initially hoped to bring it back to Planet X, but the planet was overtaken, which instead forced him to plant his race’s last hope on Planet Y, where — in several billion millennia — the Flora Colossus will sprout once again.

There is also a version of Groot that was simply exiled from his home world, after saving a human girl his people abducted. In this version, which first cropped up in Groot’s debut comics appearance back in 1960, Groot’s disobedience leads him to exile, but his people remain happy, healthy, and perfectly content on Planet X. Groot still finds his way to the Guardians of the Galaxy, but he doesn’t carry the weight of being the only remaining Flora Colossus.

That’s not really part of the main canon anymore, unfortunately, which leaves Groot in a lonely position. Thankfully, he’s got his team — which is more like a family at this point — and plenty of adventures to keep him happy, but (barring any major changes over at Marvel) we won’t be meeting any more of Groot’s kind in the future.