Cloudgrump

The cloudgrump split from its ancestor. It is the result of ordinary division going wrong, producing huge clonal colonies. Initially disorderly, bilateral symmetry was rapidly lost and the colony members produce an ever-growing mass. Pressure from the hydrogen within forces the colony into a more spherical shape, gradually creating a massive, hollow balloon. The outer layer of living tissue is 20 cm thick, which is usually far, far too thick to support a ballont (aerial balloon-like organism); however, most of this is occupied by the ancestral spongy tissue, which is lightweight and serves to allow holes to be quickly patched and healed without the contents of the balloon blasting outwards. The outermost layer—the skin—is no thicker than one millimeter, though slightly thicker surface tubers may be scattered throughout. Attached to the skin is a mosaic of downfeather-like leaves and hanging aeroplanktivorous tendrils, the former most concentrated on the top of the superorganism and the latter most concentrated on the bottom. The downfeather-like structure of the leaves serves both to increase surface area and to collect any moisture at all, whether from the air or from the cloud the huge plant rests in.



As is the case with other contemporary flying flora, metals from captured particles of dust and dirt are incorporated into the cloudgrump’s skin, which is helpful in preventing hydrogen from leaking out between its molecules. Tough cellulose fibers also make its skin very resistant to tearing, so that it does not pop if it is caught in a storm or collides with another cloudgrump, though it most certainly still will if it collides with a mountain. It typically floats at a height between two and five kilometers up in the air, with older, bigger grumps generally floating the highest. Cloudgrump populations are at their biggest and healthiest along the equator—the tropical rainforests that exist along the same region get their namesake rain from the intertropical convergence zone, or doldrums, which is constantly warm and wet, and the cloudgrump can only grow when it has access to clouds, going almost completely dormant except for its collection of aeroplankton the rest of the time. The largest colonies will sometimes be mostly dormant except for a small portion which is touching a small cloud, collecting and distributing water for later use.

Cloudgrumps need surprisingly little water for their size due to them being mostly hollow. All of their water is contained in their outer layer and their interior is incredibly dry. This is because even a small contamination of water vapor, such as 0.1%, inside the hydrogen sac will cause the grump to sink. While one would think this would make grumps prone to exploding in a spectacular ball of flame, this is not the case. While spectacular explosions most certainly do occur, especially in the drier parts of the sky, the most common cause of explosions is lightning strikes, and a healthy cloudgrump is more than equipped to handle these. As mentioned before, its skin contains metals which prevent hydrogen from leaking. However, these are also used to form a passive lightning defense system. Instead of passing through the hydrogen sac, which is protected by cellulose which has low conductivity, the electricity is directed along the exterior and down to the bottom of the organism by the far more conductive metal component, where it then exits out a hanging tendril and strikes the ground far below. Most cloudgrumps are struck by lightning thousands of times in their lives without suffering significant injury, but can still eventually die from one if they are struck while dormant and dehydrated; in this case, there will be no moisture to suppress the fire, so it will rapidly reach their interior and cause a nearly instantaneous explosion. Large grumps exploding can devastate the ecosystems below them by causing a massive wildfire, but most grumps which reside in dry environments where this is possible are very small and their burning chunks only cause a fire as big as one the lightning strike could cause on its own. The cloudgrump lacks the ability to actively move towards humidity, instead relying on clouds to form nearby to it as it drifts in the wind.

Like its ancestor, the cloudgrump reproduces using spores. Unlike its ancestor, it could be broadly described as viviparous. When it collects spores from other grumps, it holds onto them after fertilization, passing cloudbubble cryoutines to the developing embryo. The embryo has a bubble of its own from very early on but struggles to float with it, so the parent provides it with the nutrients it needs to grow long stiff fibers. Though the embryo within is just a few millimeters across, the fibers can be as much as 10 centimeters in length at birth. The fibers are transparent, stiff, and hydrophobic. When released, the juvenile, called a bubbling, drifts downwards and and rolls on the ground or the surface of the ocean and is occasionally swept in the air, all the while collecting water from sea or rain which splashes between the fibers before it rolls off. If they are not gobbled up by ground-dwelling fauna, bubblings increase in size until their hydrogen sac is big enough for them to float more than they roll, at which point they start dividing into a clonal colony to form a young grump. Young grumps are often lopsided, not yet big enough to be forced into their round adult shape. The fibers remain until the grump is big enough that it never falls, at which point they are absorbed for nutrients. Because its ability to divide has been repurposed to form clonal colonies, the cloudgrump can no longer produce independent individuals asexually. The exact amount of time it takes for a cloudgrump colony to reach full size varies, but in the most ideal naturally possible conditions (that is, literal constant humidity and access to a never-ending supply of clouds and aeroplankton), it can shockingly reach full size in only 50 years due to its incredibly low density.

Etymology
The “grump” in “cloudgrump” is a combination of “grass” and “lump”. This is because of its evolutionary origin as lumps of cloudgrass that failed to divide properly. It was chosen over other names to be humorous.