Gildrings

Mainly pioneer species, these flora grow in colonies and help break down rock, preparing the soil for more complex organisms such as the Airbulbs. Some are more specialized, mainly the descendants of the gilded gildring. They are indigenous to Mason, and like all other Mason lifeforms, went extinct with the loss of Mason's atmosphere. The closest living relation to this lineage are Hikerflora.

Anatomy
Gildrings form flat colonies that trap water under a photosynthesizing layer. As the colony grows older, it takes on a ring shape. Stable gildrings, or decedents of the gilded gildring, have roots and a spongy, spore-producing center. So-called "rock corals", decedents of the crustacolonius, grow layers of gildrings over one another, forming an active, living layer over a dead center, and recieveing nutrients from the sea water at high tide.

Behavior
As gildrings grow, the cells in the center of the colony run out of resources and detach themselves from the rest of the colony, blowing away in the wind, giving them their distinctive ring shape.

Breathing and Blood
Gildring respiration is similar to that of Earth plants; carbon dioxide is used in photosynthetic reactions that release oxygen into the atmosphere.

Diet & Energy
Gildrings absorb violet light, making them appear yellow.

Evolution
Gildrings evolved from the hitchhiker gildling, which is nearly identical to gildrings, with the exception of forming a ring shape.

Locomotion
As a floral group, all gildrings are immobile.

Reproduction
To reproduce, most gildrings simply detach individual cells from the colony when the ground under it runs out of usable nutrients. Descendants of the gilded gildring, though, have a dedicated spore-producing tissue.

Size
Stable gildrings are just a centimeter or so long, while regular, colonial species can grow meters wide.