The planet appears more substantially in "Star Wars" reference guides to fictional locations. According to Kevin J. Anderson's "The Illustrated Star Wars Universe" (1995) and Wallace, Kolins and McKinney's "Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Planets and Moons" (1998), Alderaan is covered by wild grasslands, plains, forests and mountain ranges. The planet has no ocean, but has a semi-frozen polar sea, and thousands of lakes and rivers. It is rich in biodiversity, populated by a wide variety of flora and fauna, such as the nerf and the thranta.