Madamedusa Vine

The 'Madamedusa Vine split from its ancestor and took on a very different lifestyle. Rather than attempting to fully support it's entire body on its own it has now begun using other Flora as a support system. In combination to the sudden loss of the limiting factor of needing to support its own weight, as well as the demand to compete for light and resources with its host, The Madamedusa Vine has taken on a climbing sprawling lifestyle, essentially becoming a vine. It has traded its central trunk and branching body form for a repeating pattern of segments along a branching central cord. At each node of segment multiple dormant buds exist to replace damaged cord or activate when the growing tips are too far away to maintain their dormancy, as this state is held by constant hormonal exposure.

Tethers

These internodal segments are capped off by the bulbous float tethers. The base of the cord is large and hollow, an artifact from initially being the leading tip of its segment before the next segment grew out from it. This hollow starts out rich in hydrogen, the gas compound being created more quickly that it can escape in the young tissues, but becomes a mixture of CO2 and hydrogen as it matures and no longer needs to act as a growing point. Two dormant lobes hang off the face of the cord, pointing opposite of where the cord grows, these become active if the float is destroyed or broken away. They simply grow to become new tethers and create new floats.

Holdfasts

Immediately off the base of the tether grows a wiry holdfast, sharing in structural origin to the tether and float. At the ends of these twisting, gripping, strands are an uneven pair stipules of sorts followed by four thin hairs for grasping even more firmly. The flat stipules are derived from the leaves of the more classic Baebula float, while the hairs are derived bubble seed tissue. These holdfasts are typically split into threes. There is a dormant bud at the base that replaces them if they're damaged.

Floats

The float at the end of the unbranched tether has several layers to it's construction. The first layer is actually derived from the asexual bubble seeds, having migrated down below the leaves, they no longer act as a standard means of reproduction and instead are the main source of floatation. The distinct bubbles that form the irregular mass have walls only four cells thick to minimize mass, with the inner wall housing nanostructures meant to minimize hydrogen loss. The ballast for the float is actually the tapered end of the drooping tether. The following organ layer is the skirt of leaves that go all the way around the float. The once flat structures are now ballooned and sausage-like in appearance from a hollow inner chamber.

Bubble Seeds

The top layer of the float is a newer organ system. Bubble development occurs in a counter-clockwise fashion, with bubbles occurring one after another in gradual maturity. The ancestral bubble seed was a specialized asexual structure for reproduction, it's cells were chromosomally the same as the somatic cells found through the rest of the bubble weed body. The large structures were made of many cells, and growth could be found all across the surface of the bubble until maturity. The bubbles of the Madamedusa Vine are comparable, initially being chromosomally indistinct from other somatic cells during early development. Eventually a point of growth on the young bubble seamlessly transitions into a haploid state, these cells then dominate the growth of the bubble.

At a size large enough to be noted when observing the wheel of bubbles atop the float, the developing bubble grows a unique tube structure, hollow inside and unbroken from the hydrogen bladder inside the bubble. This growth is a gametangium and begins shedding haploid cells from its outer surface in the form of airborne gametes, or sexual spores. These sit on the surface that created them until they're brushed, or blown, or bumped, upon which they puff away as a cloud.

As the bubble matures further the gametangium continues to elongate into a wispy thread form, it ceases spore production and creates a thin layer of mucus on its surface. The wisp moves with air currents, resulting in it covering more volume of its surroundings than if it were to remain still. If a spore from a Madamedusa Vine, including itself, lands on the wisp it is shuttled to the base via mucus where it fuses with a haploid cell of the bubble. This results in dozens of zygotes before the wisp stops producing mucus.

Spreading

Once no more mucus is produced the wispy thread growing off the bubble dies and desiccates, it becomes nothing more than a light crinkled wire sticking out. During this period the existence of zygotes trigger the bubble to produce and accumulate a noxious yellowing compound in it's walls to deter foraging from Minikruggs or Floraverms. By the time the wire is completely dead and dry the bubble will have fully matured. The point of connection between the parent flora and the bubble will release, the circle of bubbles will appear to shift slightly counter-clockwise as undeveloped bubbles become revealed. The loose bubble will float away at the mercy of the winds, with the brittle wire hanging beneath it. If the wire catches on something, hopefully a large tree, due to it's twisted shape it is likely to snag and hold the bubble in place. Many bubbles however simply drift off and die before bumping into a host.

Establishment

Stuck on a twig or branch it's merely a matter of time for the hydrogen, no longer in production, to escape from the bubble and cause it to lose buoyancy. As the sac of air sags downward it tugs on the wire holding it in place, eventually becoming too heavy and easily snapping it. The partially delayed bubble drifts down to the base of its perch, and settles on the ground. On the ground the bubble slowly flattens from pressure loss and its somatic cells slowly die, their nutrients seeping into the actively growing zygotes turned embryos.

These embryos, fed with the cytoplasm of the entire bubble, are able to take root as quickly as any other more conventional purple flora seed. Selection for quickly establishing embryos that can outcompete their siblings is strong, their proximity to one another due to sharing a single bubble causes this pressure. Sometimes a few settle into a dynamic in which they share their spot for anchoring into the soil, but normally a single root system manages to strangle out any others.

Growth

Initial above ground growth is of a simple, featureless, cord of tissue. This photosynthetic cord arches and flops over itself as it reaches upward but remains unable to support its own weight. Once reaching about 25 centimeters in length the growing tip begins enlarging to form a hollow inside it and activates hydrogen production. This large hollow filled with hydrogen lifts the cord upward, as it continues to grow and distinguish in shape from the cord it elongates and buds appear near its base. One of these buds develops into holdfasts, another begins to grow another cord, which very quickly starts the formation of a second hollow float. The new cord between these two floats experiences intercalary growth to elongate to a length of up to 1 meter. As the second float behind to mature it repeats the process, and this process repeats indefinitely.

The first float, or immature float tether, having grown into a slight teardrop shape, now develops what were once bubble seeds in it's ancestor. These structures are no longer uniform, sporadically growing to form a robust clump of extremely thin walled floats. The mass is dominated by a handful of floats, with many smaller forms surrounding them ready to grow and take their place if damage occurs. The leaf skirt grows up from the top center of the mass, pointing up as they grow and inflate, then draping down as they mature and get displaced but the circle of developing bubble seeds on top of the now fully formed float. The length of tether between the central cord and the float continues to grow via intercalary growth.

Maturation and Death

This method of segment formation continues as long as the hosting flora has points for the holdfasts to grasp. As the leading tip moves away from lower nodes it's suppressive influence on buds becomes deadened and the buds form their own growing tips and segments. Over the years other bubble seeds come to colonize the same host, as well as new branches growing off the central cord will proliferate, and the host will become saturated. Even with the hydrogen and thin translucent walls of the floats and tethers and growing tips lessening the burden of weight and the shadow of flora competition for light, the sheer number of floats shading out the host and the strangle hold of the holdfasts on any point that can be grabbed results in the death of the host. Often the remains will stand for several more years, even reinforced by the Madamedusa Vines covering it. Ultimately, though, it will topple to the ground and with it all the vines that lived there, on the ground the delicate vines are crushed by fauna, shaded out by tougher purple flora, and devoured by opportunistic herbivores and detritivores.

Metabolic Note

Because hydrogen is so capable of escaping containment, even when slowed significantly by nanostructures, the Madamedusa Vine has developed an enzyme that will oxidize excess hydrogen loose in cytoplasm using oxygen free radicals that inevitably result from aerobic metabolic activity. Other than the antioxidant effect of this activity two other results occur, one is the recapture of hydrogen in water, and the other is the creation of a slight source of heat energy from the bond formation. It's not enough to properly regulate their body temperature however.