Woodland Watergherkin

The Woodland Watergherkin split from its ancestral group the Pioneeroots. They settled into seeps, snow melt marshes, bogs, ponds, and other standing or slow flowing bodies of water. They elongated upward for better light access, and their root systems became more robust and fibrous to help hold them in the mud.

They are fast growing annuals. Their success is largely due to their multiple ways of colonizing areas, through both sexual and asexual means. They've inherited their ancestors' fast budding, with which an individual can colonize a notable area within a year, with individuals growing off from the base of the Watergherkin and pushing out via growth. They've also developed a spore forming structure that shares origin with their method of budding. Rather than forming a wholly new individual, the growth remains connected by a tough umbilical. What is formed is a wavy dish that fills with haploid spores until rain washes them all out at once. In the water the spores knock into one another, merging and resting into the mud. Those formed during spring or early summer will grow immediately, while those formed later will go dormant until winter transitioning into next spring triggers them to activate. Finally, they have airborne spores that are formed on their upper surface and readily released into wind or onto passing fauna. These spores always immediately activate once settled into a wet area.

As true annuals at the onset of winter all mature individuals perish. However the spores they leave in their stead will flourish next year, a testament to their success in establishing long-term residence in an area.