Parasitic Floats

The Parasitic Floats split from their ancestor. Their feeding tendrils have been modified to be used to stick to other flora, from which they will then leach nutrients. They are colonial, forming long, sometimes branching colonies created by incomplete division, which float with help from Cryoutine endosymbiotes which produce hydrogen. They can be found anywhere where some kind of vascular flora is present except underwater, including in the sky where they are commonly seen as parasites of the Cloudgrass. Some species are able to produce chitinase, which allows them to feed off of crystal and glass flora as well. Their parasitic capability has completely replaced their ancestor’s aeroplanktivory.

Parasitic Floats retain small flagellated tendrils, which they can still use to “swim” towards moisture. However, instead of embedding themselves in clouds, when they reach an area wet enough to support tall flora they start rotating around until one end bumps into a plant. The sticky tendrils latch on and digest through the victim plant’s exterior, granting them access to the nutrients inside. While attached they can be likened to a tiny vine that hangs upwards instead of down, their flotation ability serving to keep them exposed to light. Sometimes, both ends will latch onto a plant; this is especially common in environments with a high density of flora available, or where the flora have many branches that are close together.

Like their ancestor, Parasitic Floats have two modes of reproduction, sexual and asexual. Sexual spores are dispersed by wind and are collected and fertilized by other colonies. Spores must germinate in a cloud, fog, or attached to a plant. Rather than depending on their environment for symbiotes, fertilized spores come “pre-packaged” with a sample of the mother’s symbiotes. They can also reproduce with macroscopic binary fission, with a single bubble elongating and then splitting. However, their binary fission is defective—they don’t fully detach, instead remaining connected by digestive tendrils. They can break apart from one another fairly easily, however, making their asexual reproduction instead more of a fragmentation.

There are many species of Parasitic Float. Those found in mature woodland and rainforest biomes tend to favor areas that are exposed to direct sunlight (therefore likely above the canopy) so that the wind will catch their spores; other species are either neutral or prefer shade, as being in the shade makes them less conspicuous to potential predators. Most species specialize in a particular kingdom of flora, but some are generalists instead. Some species will specifically feed on pairs of physiologically similar flora, such as crystal and glass flora, or purple and black. No species feed on plyents. They are generally absent from glaciers, tundras, and dunes/hot deserts, due to a combination of harsh conditions and lack of flora available; they are, however, present in alpine tundras, as though harsh they nonetheless support enough flora to sustain a population.