Snowflake Obsidioaks

Despite their wildly divergent lifestyles and considerable difference in size, the chameleon obsidishank and the obsidoak are very closely related, enough that where their ranges overlap they hybridize readily. These hybrids can be very successful, but often ultimately merged back into one of the parent species’ populations—that is, until new biomes opened up for colonization which these hybrids thrived in. Thus, they not only split from their ancestors, but diversified—transforming into a widely successful genus group found all over Wallace. They are also found in Koseman, having crossed the archipelagos which separate the two landmasses thanks to their airborne reproduction.

Snowflake obsidioaks are named for one of the side effects of their hybridization. They have both the circulatory-based temperature regulation of obsidoaks, which results in their leaves all being roughly the same temperature, and the color change ability of the chameleon obsidishank, where leaves can change color from black to white using camoplasts when they get too hot. As a result, when they overheat, they change color all at once rather than a few leaves at a time. This can cause a snowflake obsidioak canopy to be dotted with white and gray trees, as individuals or species might have different heat tolerance compared to one another, ultimately causing the canopy to resemble snowflake obsidian.

Snowflake obsidioaks are found in a variety of biomes. The tallest, 20 meter species are generally found in woodland biomes and form much of the old growth forests. Being much smaller than the ancestral obsidoak, they can grow on steeper slopes, allowing them to coexist with the much larger species. Smaller species can be found in harsher and drier biomes, and the smallest, 5 meter tall species form pygmy forests scattered around shrubland biomes, particularly the chaparral. They inherit the fire resistance of the chameleon obsidishank and can recover and regrow after a wildfire. In the plains, smaller species can be found isolated and scattered while larger ones often grow along rivers and streams, and in the deserts, they are nearly entirely absent, only existing as small species very close to water from streams or oases. Their black leaves make them well-suited to populating subpolar biomes despite being naturally broadleaf.

The leaves of snowflake obsidioaks inherit the broad shape and bitterness of obsidoak leaves and the toughness of chameleon obsidishank leaves. This makes them somewhat unappetizing, but they are nonetheless edible to browsing herbivores. Snowflake obsidioaks have many branches, creating a microclimate which can support a variety of arboreal and semi-arboreal fauna and epiphytes. They have heartwood which can rot when exposed without necessarily killing the trees, creating hollows where small fauna can hide or nest. When snowflake obsidioaks die, their leaves turn white, and likewise they leave behind white leaf litter.

As they use spores, snowflake obsidioaks are slower to sprout than flora which use seeds. However, this is mitigated by a couple of factors. First, the spores of obsiditrees including the snowflake obsidioaks are multicellular, which gives them a head start compared to organisms with unicellular spores and allows them to survive the dry conditions caused by leaf litter, even though they are not as effective at this as seeds. Second, they are very shade-tolerant and can exist even under a canopy of other black flora, staying as juveniles until there is a break in the canopy. These two factors help keep the old growth forests mostly black flora-dominated at the time of evolution.

Like the obsidoak and like the oak trees they are named for, snowflake obsidioaks are shade trees which eliminate competition by being wider than they are tall and casting shadows all around themselves. They grow many spore pods throughout their branches, which are shed at the end of their spore season. They are largely dependent on wind to disperse their spores, but some species, especially in forest biomes where there is little wind, have barbs or hairs on their spores which allow them to be tracked to new locations by fauna. Populations will release the spores in their spore chambers all at the same time based on various wind and humidity cues to ensure greater chances of successful germination, as they are mostly dependent on water to bring the spores together for fertilization. So many spores can be released at once that it creates an orange haze or spore fog, which under some weather conditions can fill the air over a particular biome for days or even weeks and which greatly contribute to aeroplankton. They hybridize, speciate, and hybrid-speciate readily, just like Terran oak trees.