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More from ~NocturnalSea

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September 5, 2011
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:iconnocturnalsea:
A plant I created for a hypothetical planet exercise over at: [link] .
The setting is a hot, highly-volcanic world covered in lush jungles and acidic swamps.

The Orange Sponge Plant (Spongiradicibus luteubacis) is an opportunist specially adapted to grow on freshly-cooled lava flows. As its name implies, S. luteubacis has thick, sponge-like roots for sucking up water before it vanishes into the highly-porous volcanic rock. These roots provide an ideal habitat for many organisms, including the unusual Red-eyed Dunce Cap: [link]

The Sponge Plant produces crawling vines that spread out in an even circle from the central root. At a length predetermined by an as-yet unknown enzymatic trigger, the vines take root and produce juicy, orange, seed-filled berries that are irresistable to the many animals that wander the lava field and nearby environs.

Unlike Earth flora, the leaves of the sponge plant are brownish-yellow since their primariy photosynthesizing pigment is a compound similar to the fucoxanthin of brown algae, rather than the chlorophyll of our land-plants.
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:iconamnioticoef:
~AmnioticOef Sep 5, 2011
Great work! This week has been a good one for speculative botany it seems.
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:iconnocturnalsea:
~NocturnalSea Sep 7, 2011  Professional Traditional Artist
You don't say. Who else is doing speculative botany?
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:iconamnioticoef:
~AmnioticOef Sep 7, 2011
Just you and bensen-daniel. But that's more speculative botany than you get most weeks :D .
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:iconamnioticoef:
~AmnioticOef Sep 5, 2011
(What with Bensen-daniel's collection of alien plants [link] and now this)
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