Topship Fuzzpalm
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The "lids" of shrog nests were regularly lost, tossed overboard in storms or blown away by a strong wind, which would allow light in. Sometimes, this light would shine on trampled mainland fuzzpalm berries inside, encouraging the seeds within to sprout. Though the mainland fuzzpalm's adaptive trunk would allow these to grow towards the light, more often than not even if they survived predation by the nest's inhabitants, the nest provided very little support for them and would break apart before they reached full size, either from the shrog inhabitants dying and leaving the nest in disrepair or the tree and its roots aiding in destroying the logs that served as the nest's main support. Eventually, however, a new kind of fuzzpalm appeared that did not destroy the nest it grew in. The topship fuzzpalm split from its ancestor.
The topship fuzzpalm has adaptive woody roots which wrap around, "consume" (or, more accurately, take nutrients from as it naturally decomposes), and ultimately replace dead wood. This allows it to take over shrog nests, stealing their shape so that it may float like a boat. This has the side effect of turning it into a pleuston without having any adaptations for floating. Its name comes from the end result; as its adaptive trunk makes it grow out of the nest entrance in the center and a cowlick of fleshy roots at the bottom can create a point, a mature topship without its leaves has a shape vaguely similar to that of a spinning top. Its leaves are longer, though equally fuzzy, allowing it to absorb considerably more light than its ancestor. It commonly has "tufts" of leaves growing on its exposed roots as well. As it has such a rare, specialized habitat, the topship fuzzpalm can live for centuries, maximizing its chances of successfully reproducing at least once. It is able to absorb nutrients from the ocean to fuel its growth.
Topship fuzzpalms are common in "ghost nests", that is, shrog nests where the shrogs inside have died. This is for two main reasons; first, the topship takes a few years to grow and lives much longer than a shrog does, and second, ghost nests usually lose their lids very quickly without them being replaced, so the interior is lit up considerably better. If the original inhabitant of the ghost nest is still inside, the topship will grow its roots through its carcass for the calcium in its bones, creating a tangle of interior roots shaped disturbingly like a shrog. If one grows in a nest that has not been abandoned, however, the conversion of the nest into living material actually benefits the shrog, as a living nest can heal from breaches, resists shrogsnapper attacks, is inedible to pirate waxfaces, and requires considerably less maintenance, though the shrogs must regularly clear out the fleshy aerial roots that start to fill the space so that the tree does not consume their tools and food stores. The leaves also obscure the "deck", so flying predators such as the stonebeak phlyer will not see the shrog on board.
The topship fuzzpalm can sprout on ordinary driftwood, but without the boat shape created by shrogs, it will become top-heavy and eventually fall over. If it survives this and does not simply sink, the adaptive trunk will try to turn back upwards, shifting its center of gravity and causing it to rotate again, creating a feedback loop that causes it to take on a corkscrew shape. When a topship fuzzpalm dies, it itself becomes driftwood and will usually not be taken over by another of its species; when this occurs, it contributes to the floating islands made by raft-building cone puffgrasses, giving back more driftwood than it "stole" by existing.
The topship fuzzpalm has evolved xenobee pollination. It is pollinated (or rather, if such a term exists, sporinated) by xenobees nesting on floating flora, which have learned to recognize a fluffy purple tree in the middle of the ocean as a potential source of nectar. It has no flowers, as its lineage has never evolved anything of the sort, and depends entirely on the co-evolving xenobees having some instinctive understanding of its anatomy. Fortunately, this is very simple, as its reproductive organs are simply located beneath where its leaves grow. Its berries are now yellow, a change which exists to benefit another, much larger co-evolving species...
- Species by Disgustedorite
- Week 26 species
- Generation 165
- Species
- Extant
- Flora of Huckian Jujubee Ocean
- Flora of Huckian LadyM Ocean
- Flora of Huckian Mnid Ocean
- Flora of Huckian Barlowe
- Flora of Huckian Drake
- Flora of Huckian Fermi
- Flora of Huckian Kosemen
- Flora of Huckian Lamarck
- Flora of Huckian Ramul
- Flora of Huckian Wallace
- Trichiopalmaceae
- Descendant of Mainland Fuzzpalm