Mountain Pagoda Crystal

The mountain pagoda crystal split from it's ancestor when pagoda crystal spores (airborne) managed to reach higher altitudes and had to develope new survival strategies.

The hardier mountain pagoda crystal spores were carried by mountain winds to higher altitudes of Vivus Volcanic, Blocks Volcanic and Huggs Volcanic. It no longer relies on a detrivorous diet but instead makes use of the more abundant sunlight available here. To fuel it's enhanced photosynthesis it has regained the ability of its past ancestor (ghost crystal) to use water (morning dew, soil moisture from snow melt, etc.). The upper terrace has greatly enlarged to collect more sunlight while those underneath have shrunk significantly and are solely devoted to spore production. The spores have evolved umbrella like flaps that maximize the carrying power of the mountain winds.

The mountain pagoda crystal has evolved a mechanism that enables it to dynamically control the amount of orange pigmentation it produces. This gives it a blotchy patterned appearance of orange to light yellow. This color shifting helps it to reduce the amount of harmful radiation absorbed during long summer days (predominantly light yellow blotches) and collect more sunlight during the shorter winter days (predominantly orange blotches). It's stunted form with rounded terraces have made it more aerodynamic. It almost hugs the steep grounds with just about enough leeway for the spores to escape when released for fertilization. This helps it to circumvent the damaging gales that are prevalent at these higher climbs.