Blastree

With large flora being relatively uncommon within many parts of Maineiac aside from true giants such as the Four-Prongion or Repeating Treebion, the niche was relatively wide open. This gave certain populations of Bangsticks the opportunity to move inland. While developing adaptations to survive in wetter habitats, they also had to deal with the little competition present that may cause shadows over the endosymbiotic cryoutines and prevent reproduction. To counter this, certain populations elevated their endosymbiotic cryoutines with a trunk and eventually gave rise to the Blastree.

Similarly to Bangsticks, Blastrees also have sexual reproduction with distinct male and female stems growing on the same individual due to them being hermaphrodites. The male stems fire spores into the air, and they eventually land in and fertilize a female stem which soon fires its seeds. Its seeds are contained in a larger casing which explodes in midair, sending seed “shrapnel” flying in all directions. The firing of the seed makes a “boom” sound while the seed casing exploding creates more of a “bang”, so when a Blastree fires its seeds one might hear “boom boom boom boom, bang bang bang bang”. The combustion organ has reduced in size, thus causing the seeds to not travel as far as their ancestors. This results in the majority of Blastree seeds to land somewhere in Maineiac after a brief time in the Troposphere though they do occasionally land in Barlowe and Hydro. While the occasional Blastree seeds that land on Hydro do not last long, the species has established a permanent population on Barlowe.

Compared to dealing with floral competition, adapting to live in wetter environments was not as challenging for the ancestors of the Blastree. This was accomplished by the Blastrees developing larger stomata which allows more water to be removed from its system through evaporation. This adaptation provides Blastrees the ability to settle relatively wetter areas compared to Bangsticks.

Like other seed-shooting cryoflora such as their ancestor, the Blastrees make use of combustion of hydrogen and oxygen produced by its endosymbiotic cryoutines to fire seeds and spores into the air. When it comes time to fire its seeds or spores, flesh covering a chitin lens dies to expose it, causing light to be focused hard enough to create a spark. The explosion of the seed-filled “bullet” is unrelated. The fleshy bottom of the bullet is tightly bound, and when launched into the air it pops into a different shape shortly afterwards, creating a powerful but more biological explosive force which shatters the rest of the bullet and distributes the seeds.

Just like their ancestors, the Blastrees have an exterior structured similar to crystal flora with more facets. This was due to their ancestors losing their lens-like structures in the majority of their cells to thrive in warm sunny environments, a feature merely retained in Blastrees. The only lens that remains intact in this species is the one that focuses light for combustion within each of their stems, with the rest of the rest of its surface being covered in a flat hexagonal face.