Quassagule

Quassagules are small, weedy generalist species found in abundance in their habitats.

After millions of years, it adapted to the many herbivores eating it. A Quassagule is less digestible than the Quaxaca: its tissue and especially its side shoots are tougher, more fibrous, and higher in cellulose. Like its ancestor, it has tiny, spine-like thorns hidden among its fuzzy leaves, which aren't long enough to stick out through its fuzz, and gradually wear down the teeth of herbivores. The thorns are particularly hard to digest. The extra cellulose has a metabolic cost: where herbivores are less abundant, its ancestor can outcompete it for resources.

Like its ancestor, root adaptations allow it to use available phosphorus fairly effectively, and hosting nitrocycle microbes in its roots gives it a dependable supply of nitrogen.

The young Quassagules are redder from photoprotective pigments, which are masked by purple pigments as they grow, but still exist. Unusually for most purpleflora, when it dries, it becomes a pastel reddish-purple, like a washed-out mulberry shade, not the typical pink or champagne, due to its underlying red pigments. Pinkish herbivores adapted to the color of dry purpleflora stand out in stands of dry Quassagules.

They are not particularly suited for prolonged dry periods. In their drier habitats, they die out in the dry season fairly often, but their spores grow quickly once the wet season starts.

It photosynthesizes both from its stem tissue and from its long, fine, fuzzy leaves. Undisturbed, Quassagules will grow three shoots. However, in nature, it is fairly common for it to have more, especially if substantially damaged while young. The secondary shoots are somewhat flattened, like blades of grass. Mature Quassagules have faint, thin dark purple stripes on the central stalk.

Their stalks wave gently in the wind of the plains, hence their name being derived from a Latin word meaning “to wave”.

They are most genetically diverse west of Blood Tropical River.

Trivia
Actually, “Quassagule” is nonsensical, and it’s only a coincidence it sounds like something meaningful. This was originally designed for Generation 158, and never released until now.)