Crystal Rootgrass

Crystal rootgrass has replaced both its direct ancestor, crystal prismgrass, and its older ancestor, the crystal weed. Faced with increasing herbivores, crystal rootgrass developed a significantly greater root structure, which goes both wide and deep, allowing it to regenerate its above-ground portions should they be eaten. The root structure in larger individuals may have two to five spots where it pokes above the surface, sprouting out numerous quick-growing crystal stalks that serve for photosynthesis, eventually developing into new individuals. This root structure also allows the crystal rootgrass to have a bit of an edge in spring, as nutrients stored through winter spur fast growth to take advantage of post-thawing sunlight before other flora and fauna become active. This is important because it has lost the ability to inhibit nearby plant growth, as on Yokto Beach where it originally evolved, it was beneficial to have the only other main flora, dressed sporestalks, nearby as their spore clouds could choke small fauna.

A major advantage crystal rootgrass has over its ancestors is true sexual reproduction, there are both male and female individuals that release spores containing half the DNA for both the plant portion and fungal portion of the organism, spores which need to fuse with the opposite sex in order to sprout. Sexual reproduction allowed crystal rootgrass to adapt and evolve more effectively, with successful traits being passed directly to the offspring of other individuals.