An
alien civilisation created by
Vernor Vinge in his novel
A Fire upon the Deep. The Skroderiders are a special type of
sentient plant that were intelligent, but could not move around (being plants and all). As a gift from another (greater) civilisation, they were given Skrodes, something like a go-kart, using which the Skroderiders could use to move around the universe, while at the same time still surviving. The
Skrode was under the
Skroderider's control. The computers in the skrodes would also serve as their memories; since they were ocean-dwelling plants, their memories were rather poor.
They tended to be very thoughtful and, compared to some other civilisations, very slow. But they seemed to be well-respected within the Beyond as a fairly good civilisation.