Lesser Steppespire

While the niches of smaller flora were starting to be filled inland by various colonists, the niches of trees were still quite vacant. This would result in some Branching Bonespires colonizing the inland areas, splitting off and becoming a unique taxon of their own right. Known as the Lesser Steppespire, this new species shares many anatomical features with its ancestor, like their many branches ending in a set of leaves. Having originally evolved in their ancestor as a genetic mutation, this adaptation is still beneficial as it increases the overall surface area for photosynthesis. One major difference is that the Lesser Steppespire has shrunk to half the size of its ancestors, which is still big enough that it grows taller than any other flora in the area but also requires less energy to maintain and shortening the amount of time it takes for them to reach full size.

The thick trunk is still present, though the lack of any large herbivores in the area when the Lesser Steppespire evolved meant it was mostly for retaining moisture (which is useful in their range as the habitats often get arid at times). The extremely tiny spines that cover the trunk are still present, mainly adapted to deter minikruggs from crawling on or feeding upon them since larger herbivores are still absent at the thing this melanophyte evolved. These spines still break off into the hides of the kruggs, lodging themselves into the tissue and causing a persistent stinging sensation.

The Lesser Steppespire still possesses large petals at the very top that open up only at night, releasing a strong odor to attract the Inland Nectarworm. The pollen-stalks are still lined by motion-sensitive trigger-hairs, which will cause the petals to close up if an Inland Nectarworm lands on them. As the suctoradioid struggles to get out, it gets covered in a coat of pollen, so that when the petals open up on the next night the Inland Nectarworm can fly out and get itself trapped within the petals of a Lesser Steppespire and fertilize it. The flowers now only bloom at the start of spring and for only a couple weeks, as this is the time when the Inland Nectarworms become fully mature. After getting pollinated, the Lesser Steppespire still produces a nut that contains many small and hardy seeds. Though the seeds are still tough enough to survive the digestive tracts of frugivores, the lack of said frugivores means the species relies on the nuts decaying with and the seeds falling down and landing on the soil. Eventually these seeds will grow into new Lesser Steppespires, with the fact that they do not get that far from the parent meaning Lesser Steppespires often grow in small but dense groves in the vast “grasslands” of Fermiblades.