|
|
Terraeflora
Terraeflora describe plants that grow above the surface, for example in open terrain.
|
Beeswax Tree
Fauna: Terraeflora. Region: Youzem.
Appearance:
Beeswax Trees are short trees, little more than thirty feet tall. Their thick leaves produce a very heady smelling wax which covers their bark, and makes them resemble half melted candles. Their treetop has a large empty central region, over an unusual donut like orifice in the skin which is used to expel stored gases.
They release a large degree of oxygen into the air, allowing creatures which are normally quite small due to their lack of lungs to get by with gills. As a result, many extremely primitive arthropods and gastropods have become far larger than normal.
Additionally, as many local creatures are extremely allergic to the pollen of the Beeswax Tree, very few outside animals except Fueno ever tread within this three million year old forest. The scent is musky, and has in the past been exploited by nearby exporters.
The trees keep the hydrogen they gain when they split it from its oxygen counterpart deep within their trunks. Releasing it during warm seasons, they create spectacular columns of hazy blue fire to attract pollinating insects to their presence.
When burning hydrogen, they grow a series of small fiery orange blossoms, which when pollinated grow into a scarlet and gold fruit with a taste not unlike honey, with a hint of smokiness. These fruits are considered a delicacy, and are marketed as Dragons eyes.
|
concept art by Udana
|
|
Shinkicker
Fauna: Terraeflora. Region: Youzem.
Appearance:
Its official name was the 'Ryan McCallisters God Damn Son of a Bitch Mother ---- Bush'. Named for the man who first found and 'described' it. He tripped over it in the dead of the night, and in doing so, required fifteen bandages and a minor transfusion. The more polite people call it a Shinkicker.
The plant is similar to an earthly pineapple, in that it's a small plant which grows one single, massive juicy fruitlike body. In this case, a plant which looks like a larger green and red colored dimpled golf ball. However, until it's ripe enough to be edible, the plant protects by growing dozens of large sturdy glass like spines which are the size, strength and sharpness of 18 gauge hypodermic needles.
Tripping over these fast growing plants is common in the dark, so it's quite common to find them kicked to smithereens by some angry drunk.
The fruit itself has a red colored meat, with a single rocklike pit at the center, and a texture not unlike watermelon. The fruit itself is ever so slightly salty, and is considered a breakfast delicacy when served drizzled with caramel butter.
There's very little commercial growth of the plant, as people will often go out of their way to smash these plants out of sheer spite for scars that haven't healed. In fact, it's estimated that every person in the temperate regions of New Horizon over the age of ten has tripped over a shin kicker at least once.
|
concept art by Udana
|
|
Sea Plum Weed
Appearance:
Sea Plums are the fruit of a plant best described as seagoing ivy. Much like terrestrial Kelp Beds, Sea Plum Weeds are a large spreading forest of aquatic vegetation.
Unlike Kelp, however, they actually extend up beyond the surface, forming large fern like forests several miles from shore, over a hundred feet in height. They grow with flowering branches designed to attract large pollinating arthropods, which help them reproduce. Additionally the arthropods attract Gooney Birds who help fertilize them.
Their greenish blue fruit is sour like a lemon, but with a rind not unlike a plum. The meats of the fruits texture is best described as yellow and melon like, with blood red pits which taste somewhat foul when close to germinating. They are considered a treat by most.
Fishing near them is notoriously productive as their roots and stems support a massively complex ecosystem not unlike that created by Coral on Earth.
|
concept art by Udana
|
|
Corpsewood Tree
Fauna: Terraeflora. Region: Youzem.
Appearance:
Corpsewood Trees resemble a dead and petrified terrestrial tree, gnarled and twisted and having lost all its bark. But underneath its dead exterior there's sturdy green wood which is almost as strong as an iron bar.
Corpsewood Trees leaves tend to look yellow, or brown most of the year, but during springs they're usually a vibrant green. They can grow as high as fifty feet tall in most locations, particularly rich soil can yield trees as high as eighty feet.
During Summer, they bloom with beautiful blue flowers, which turn into a blood red pear like fruit called a Corpse Fruit. Historically, the first settler to try one described the taste was 'panfried shit twice boiled in horse piss for extra flavor'.
|
concept art by Udana
|
|
Rhine Grass
Fauna: Terraeflora. Region: Youzem.
Appearance:
Rhine Grass is an all pervasive nuisance that few people even bother to try and rid themselves of. Much like a typical lawn grass, when it's short it's green and soft and pleasant to look at and walk across.
However, if it grows to more than three inches, it starts getting larger in width and becoming about twice as firm as normal grass. It's capable of growing to over six feet in height. A large pasture of tall Rhine Grass is trickier to pass than terrestrial grass, and turns a distinct shade of brown, and this requires constantly maintenance to keep it from becoming a jungle.
|
concept art by Udana
|
|
|
|