Sprawling Quillball

The sprawling quillball replaced its ancestor in the Dixon High Grassland and Dixon High Desert. It appears to have regained its fuzzy leaves. However, this is only an illusion produced by numerous thin spines, an illusion also produced by the teddy bear cholla of Earth. Slightly thicker, stiffer thorns blend in with the spines. The spherical leaves are densely packed and grow directly from the branch. The hairlike spines grown by each leaf entangle themselves with each other, making it difficult for strong winds to blow them away. While this lessens the likelihood of wind-based dispersal, in the sprawling quillball's habitats strong winds are common enough to risk entirely defoliating it. The spines also shade the leaves, to the point it can't acquire enough sunlight to survive in less sunny biomes.

They can reproduce by budding from their sprawling, shallow roots, but rarely do so in places where resources are scarce. They disperse themselves mostly through large fauna that bump against their leaves. With the spines and thorns of a leaf stuck in the fauna's skin, the fauna rips the leaf (and often multiple leaves) away from the branch. The leaves soon dry out, splitting along "seams" to release a powdery trail of spores behind the fauna. If it's lucky, the fauna is a desert tilecorn heading to an oasis, where the sprawling quillball thrives.

Notes: This is named after Luitzen Brouwer, inventor of the hairy ball theorem.