Pollenshroom

The pollenshroom split from its ancestor and moved out to more open environments to decompose less specific kinds of flora material. There, wind would frequently blow achenes around and cause them to collide with adults. The pollenshroom evolved to take advantage of this, beginning with an achene-catching apparatus and the ability to use the spores from the achenes to fertilize its own. Very rapidly, its cap was narrowed and its reproductive surface expanded to support this, and it split into male and female forms, with male sporophytes producing tiny pollen-like achenes that are captured by females, which will only release their own achenes after fertilization has occurred. This also results in the pollenshroom never growing as a gametophyte unless unfertilized female achenes are artificially extracted, and gametophytes are infertile and prone to genetic disease, thus the gametophyte generation can be considered lost for all intents and purposes.

The pollenshroom has modified the ancestral achene hooks into downy plumes. These are fairly short on the male achene, as its small size makes it already easily blown by the wind, but much larger on the female achene to compensate for its greater mass. These aid it in spreading far and wide, being far more effective than just catching on fauna. When a pollenshroom is laden with pollen or mature achenes, its reproductive surface will appear and feel as though it is covered in velvet.

The use of achenes instead of bare spores gives the pollenshroom a massive advantage over other decomposers in the relatively dry climate that it prefers to grow in; it can even grow in the desert. This is because achenes shield the spores from dehydration and contain food that allows them to germinate without immediate access to organic matter. Nonetheless, achenes will usually only germinate when they either land on something to eat, or when something to eat lands on them, and can stay dormant for as long as 12,000 years while waiting.

The pollenshroom will feed leisurely on whatever it grows upon, which is often fresh flora too large for detritivorous fauna and unpalatable to other organisms. Though the woody cap is far less extensive, lignins are present in the stem which still makes the pollenshroom not in much danger of being eaten. Like its ancestor it is perennial, though if it doesn’t have access to a lot of decaying flora, it will not necessarily actually live long. Barring injury or disease, it will almost always live long enough to reach the next breeding season, producing immature stalks all the while. When the time comes, it then grows its stalks to full size so that it may release or collect pollen depending on its sex, allowing it to pass on its genes. These stalks are theoretically perennial themselves, but depending on the conditions they may die back to conserve energy, leaving only the living roots. The maximum lifespan, should one be lucky enough to grow on a good thick log, is about 80 years.