Coastal Goth Tree

As Jaydoh began to shrink in size due to rising sea-levels, the range for the jaydoh goth tree began to diminish. This led to some populations of jaydoh goth trees to spread their range to the coasts, where competition is infrequent and thus plenty of room to thrive if they can tolerate the particular challenges that arise from living by the ocean. This would require several unique adaptations that lead to the evolution of the coastal goth tree.

In many ways, the coastal goth tree retains many of the same characteristics as their ancestors, such as the fluid-filled leaves located on the jointed leaf stalks. The leaves still store water through a waxy covering. During the night and hottest parts of the day the water stored in the leaves will be moved down into the roots so that the plant doesn't lose it by evaporation or some herbivore eating the leaves. The jointed leaf stalk will also be lowered at night to completely cover the leaves, which shields them from the cold night air. These stalks are still moved by tubes in their joints filling with water and then straightening due to pressure. The coastal goth tree also retains a thick trunk with tough bark that prevents water being lost through evaporation as easily.

Since the species does not inhabit tundra and lives in relatively warm areas, their bark has become a dark brown in color rather than a dark grey since warming themselves up is not that much of an issue. Additionally, living along the coastlines means they often take in salt water from their roots. To avoid desiccating, the coastal goth tree developed a new adaptation to survive. This took the form of their smaller stems storing excess salt within their tissues before eventually being shed off.

Since the species still lived in relatively arid areas, the coastal goth tree had to take any advantage it could get to thrive. This came in the form of the species commonly becoming nurse logs, where coastal goth trees who die end up providing nourishment for coastal goth tree saplings(which arrive from the berries of other goth trees in the area landing on the dead trunk). While they can do this, coastal goth trees also reproduce through budding from the roots which allows them to settle new areas very quickly and also gives them an edge over similarly sized competitors.

That isn’t to say the species does not reproduce sexually either, with coastal goth trees still having a really tall berry stalk. This stalk grows dozens of small, cup-shaped berries that can be carried by the wind for long distances.

The adaptations for both tolerating salt water and for thriving on decaying flora would result in them incidentally doing well on the rafts made by marine tamow. The coastal goth trees were able to get nutrients from the decaying organic matter that makes up the rafts while extracting moisture from both rain and the sea water. Their ability to reproduce through budding allowed them to survive marine tamow feeding on individual stems while their berries can be picked up by the wind and carried to shore. This would lead to coastal goth trees being able to spread to nearby land masses like Dixon and Barlowe.