Fruity Bluestalk

Replacing its ancestor, the fruity bluestalk no longer resembles a mushroom, as instead of growing a significant stalk and cap which no longer served a functional purpose, it now just grows a small cap above ground from which sprout a number of stalks bearing small, blue fruits with an appropriately sweet taste. Within and on the surface of the fruit are spores made from a single large cell protected by a handful of dead cells that serve to help the spore to pass through the digestive systems of creatures that eat the fruit.

Under the ground, the fruity bluestalk grows a large network of tiny roots from which the reproduction caps bud wherever there is enough nutrients; these networks can theoretically reach indefinite size, but often deplete the nutrients in the ground around them and are eaten by soil-dwelling microbes, splitting the networks into multiple individuals or killing them completely. Other factors limiting the size are that it can no longer break down rock, and thus is limited to the first meter or so of surface soil, and that winter in Yokto Temperate Forest and summer in Huggs-Yokto Savanna often respectively freeze a way or dry up large portions of the network.