Fieldzeug

The Fieldzeug split from their ancestor the Arid Puffgrass and rapidly speciated into a wide number of forms. These waxy biennial flora can be found throughout Wallace and Darwin, with most species occurring in drier biomes and rain shadows. Generally they grow best in full sun situations, such as open fields with no trees, or southerly facing hillsides. Mildly alkaline soils, with lower regional rainfall, result in better growth in most species, though there are some specialized for the more acidic and rain drenched regions which tend to be smaller in stature and less eye-catching. The smallest varieties are found in alpine regions, barely any stalk developing under a large nearly leafless spore pod during their second year.

They are fast spreading with tufts of puffy spores that float through the air, and can be one of the first flora to dominate an area after a wildfire or a landslide. If wildfire occurs during their sporing season the updrafts will even kick the progeny into the air, over the blaze, and potentially into the freshly cleared land behind as they drift back down.

Their biennial nature results in the organism having vastly different appearances through its life. During their first year they are comprised of a rosette arranged clump of long narrow leaves. This form, albeit somewhat unremarkable, aggressively grows to form streaks of populations along where wind deposits their spores. Taproots are a common feature among Fieldzeug species, those that superficially appear to lack one, such as those surviving in shallow soils or hardpan regions, will display a succulent cord-like central root.

Latitudes with harsh winters do demand true dormancy, with those species residing in such cold regions experiencing leaf die off and their crown remaining insulated via the dead leaf bases to survive into their second year. In gentler temperate and tropical latitudes however the flora remains everpurple, with their transition into their second year noted with their rosette giving way to the elongation of a central stalk.

Unlike their ancestor, fieldzeug do not leave their reproductive success purely to the winds of chance. Rather than casting both mating types of tiny spores into the air to collide when paths cross these monoecious flora now only cast miniscule male spores for other individuals to capture and directly lead to their larger female spores.

The top of the central stalk during their second year holds a large reproductive pod formed from hooded tissue during uneven stalk growth. This is bissected across its upper edge developmentally, creating a pair of faces on its sides and structural formation appearing in a mohawk pattern. The inside of this hollow structure houses the female gonads, and with them the female spores. The mohawk formation is further divided by posterior and anterior sides, with a tufted structure forming along the posterior side that captures male spores and ferries them in for fusion with the female cells. On the anterior side male gonads for externally along the ridge of the pod. These collections of spore forming filaments grow in a fishbone pattern, becoming extremely long with much of their length collectively creating a tough fibrous central rod. Prior to maturation both the female tufts and male fishbones are protected by membrane derived from the pod walls.

Once fertilization is achieved for the female spore the mother flora will supply it with a thin layer of saturated oil and proteins, essentially a yolk of sorts, to allow rapid early growth rather than needing to rely solely on photosynthesis from the beginning. It then forms the typical puff layer of fibers over its spore and allows the pod to die and dessicate. In time the pod will rupture along its seam and cast a cloud of puffy spores into the air to spread far and wide.