Tusovendis

Tusovendis have wide, stiff, relatively thick leaves with spiky margins. Herbivores must be careful when eating the leaves, for while the leaf margins aren't especially sharp, they can still prick the mouths of fauna. Both the leaves and the petioles (leaf stalks) are coated in a waterproof wax that contains bitter chemicals, chiefly naringin. The wax is important both for shedding water in its rainforest habitat and deterring herbivores. Its petioles grow closely together and are cemented with wax to form a functional trunk. It lacks a stem, and leaves grow from a growth point at the center of the root mass. It has shallow, magenta roots that grow in an expanding mat.

In the humid understory of the rainforest, there is no wind around to pollinate it. Instead, it relies on a species of xenobee, informally called the "sucker-ended xenobee" for the large, adhesive sucker on its hind end, which is formed by fused cloacal lips. The xenobee sticks onto the projecting lip of the flower, pokes its long snout into the flower, and collects pollen on the hair surrounding its mouth. Seeds develop from papery, pea-shaped capsules, which are eventually dropped from the flower poles and germinate near the parent flora.

Tamchucks lack receptors of naringin. Consequently, tusovendis leaves aren't as bitter to them. However, they rarely eat tusovendis leaves, instead using them as nesting material.

(Should the plural of "tusovendis" be "tusovendis", "tusovendises", or "tusovendi"?)