Lurtrees

Lurtrees are a genus of subtropical and tropical trees descended from the lurtress population of Ramul. The Ramul-Steiner ecoregion is a maze of islands and mangals of various sizes which provides ample opportunity for speciation. There are many different species of lurtree, a species or subspecies may arise on a single island and either remain there or spread to the larger archipelago. As theses islands initially lacked large flora, the proto-lurtree populations that managed to establish themselves on them were able to grow larger and larger, competing with each other for space, light, and wind.

Lurtrees sprout numerous small stems from their aerial roots, each of which grows its own quartet of leaves. This has substantially increased their photosynthetic surface area as well as providing redundancy in case one set of leaves is damaged or destroyed. The first stem to develop, which the roots themselves grow from, produces the largest leaves and harp structure.

They still attract pollinators through sound produced by their distinctive harps. These harps vary in size and shape depending on the species and many produce multiple sounds at once from different parts of the harp. This results in more complex songs which are unique to each species. All adult members of the same species will start singing within a few days of each other each year and continue singing until their harps wear out, generally within one to two weeks. Closely related species will often have overlapping singing periods and as a result hybridization within the genus is fairly common. Species living in the subtropics will typically sing during the early spring and into the summer while the singing seasons of tropical species are more varied. After pollination they will produce small wind-blown seeds.

Their aerial root system is less dense than that of the lurtress and their roots no longer exclusively branch at regular, predetermined intervals. Instead roots branch as a result of a number of factors including certain mechanical stresses on the root, which may indicate a potential collapse in the near future. Many species will grow a single central root with support roots branching off and descending to the ground. These support roots may then produce supporting roots of their own, further propping up the tree and helping it to crowd out competitors.

In some species found on densely forested islands the support roots may even wrap around the roots of other lurtrees and never reach the ground at all. These climbing lurtrees can help tie multiple trees together, creating a maze of roots that both provides shelter for small fauna and can help increase the stability of the forest as a whole and prevent the fall of any one tree. Lurtrees are also less prone to collapse than similarly size trees in general thanks to their prolific buttressing.

As the lurtrees have spread out across the Ramul-Steiner ecoregion they have brought with them their pollinator the squaphaneer which has spread to Steiner Subtropical Beach Archipelago, Sparks Tropical Beach, Steiner Tropical Beach Archipelago, Steiner Subtropical Mangal, Steiner Tropical Mangal, Steiner Subtropical Rainforest Archipelago, Steiner Tropical Rainforest, and Steiner Tropical Rainforest Archipelago. They have also secondarily spread the qupe tree and fuzzweed to the Steiner Subtropical Beach Archipelago and Steiner Subtropical Rainforest Archipelago, as those are spread through the waste of the squaphaneer.