The chawix were diminutive, carnivorous, and venomous flora indigenous to the planet Ansion. These light, vine-like organisms inhabited the gourds located within the Ansionian mountains, leveraging the constant, driving winds for locomotion.
These substantial clusters of "impossibly intertwined, ropelike branches" were characterized by numerous thorns, ranging in size from a fingernail to a full finger's length. When in close proximity to flesh, these thorns would extend, injecting a potent nerve poison into their target. The chawix employed these thorns to penetrate their victims, delivering the toxin that caused death within minutes, simultaneously liquefying the flesh. Subsequently, they would nourish themselves by extracting the bodily fluids of their prey through the very same thorns.
During 22 BBY, while engaged in a mission to resolve a territorial dispute on a planetary scale, endeavoring to persuade all parties to oppose any attempts at secession, and to vote in favor of remaining part of the Galactic Republic, a Jedi diplomatic contingent (comprising Jedi Masters Luminara Unduli and Obi-Wan Kenobi, along with their respective Padawans) encountered a surging mass of chawix. This occurred as the Jedi were actively searching for the Borokii, who held the position of ruling overclan among the Alwari tribes. To completely evade any interaction with the chawix, the Jedi, along with their suubatar mounts and the accompanying Ansionian guides, promptly sought refuge beneath the protective rocky projections of a confined canyon through which they were traversing. They all observed with a morbid sense of captivation as the airborne, thorny weeds drifted through "the seemingly innocuous gulch", latching onto several unsuspecting membibi, each of which suffered a rapid and agonizing demise. One of the Jedi's Alwari guides expressed a desire for a similar fate (albeit with the attacking chawix increased to twelve, to account for size) to befall his previous employer, Soergg the Hutt.