Purple Dotter

Purple Dotters live on the bark of beach carnoferns as harmless epiphytes. They stick close to the beach carnofern, facing away from the ocean, to conserve heat. For the same reason, purple dotters are especially likely to colonize cracks or scratches in beach carnoferns' bark. Lengthened leaves maintain the purple dotter's grip on the beach carnofern. In older specimens, these leaves may resemble vines, but this rarely occurs: the longer the leaves are, the more susceptible they are to the cold.

Most purple dotters have short lifespans, since they die from the cold of winter. The species survives by reproducing before it's too cold. The bright red seeds endure the winter by being buried in the snow, which insulates them from the cold. With luck, by the time spring arrives they have found themselves upon a beach carnofern.

Purple Dotters are named for how they dot the surfaces of beach carnoferns in the spring. Newly sprouted purple dotters are small, so several can cling to a beach carnofern at the time. As the seasons become colder, purple dotters which did not have the fortune of being attached to the correct side may wilt and die before they reproduce, especially if there are too many days of unusually cold weather.