Villigrass

The Villigrass has split from its ancestor in Mainiac Water Table. It diverged from a group of rustmolds that had ferrophile symbiotes, and shares a common ancestor with Fungiferrus magnephilus. Individual villigrass are 6 cm in diameter, but can form vast colonies that can grow to be hundreds of meters in diameter. However, most colonies are only tens of meters in diameter. Villigrass feed on the redoxed iron provided to them by the ferrophiles, which reside in microscopic pits that dot the surface of the villigrass. Once the iron 2+ is passed into the villigrass' mycelium, it is then converted into iron 3+. The villigrass have developed villus-like structures that increase their surface area and in turn, their exposure to the iron oxide that drifts about the cave floor. The villigrass will also consume any organic matter that it can dig its rhizoids into. This includes microbial mats, table cushions, and detritus. They use the carbon component of their diet to produce carbon-based structures, and use iron as a source of energy. While their voracious appetite often leaves vast swathes of Maineiac Water Table's floor smothered in the red organism, they are limited in growing space by the concentration of iron oxides. Because the cave lacks any currents, all of the iron oxides from the decaying shells and exoskeletons of iron fauna accumulate on the cave floor. This results in the villigrass only occupying the cave floor, leaving the walls and rocks to be colonized by table cushions. In addition to this, areas heavily grazed by the magnekite often are uncovered long enough for table cushions and microbial mats to grow. Villigrass will typically reproduce asexually via runners, spreading their colony throughout the cave. However, when they run into another colony, they will reproduce sexually via conjugation. The two colonies will extend gametangia-bearing pili that will produce zygotes when fused together. These zygotes then produce spore stalks, which will then release spores into the water column. These spores will then hitch a ride on passing iron fauna like the magnekite as it grazes on the villigrass colonies. The spores will then hopefully fall off and germinate somewhere far away from the two colonies, producing a new, genetically distinct individual that will in turn form a new, genetically distinct colony.