Arid Plyent

The arid plyent split from its ancestor the stunted river plyent. It has left life in the river and has gone into the riparian zone and beyond. There it encountered a very dry environment. To cope with this it now has a waxy outer coating to reduce water loss and can store water reserves located in its main trunk. Its leaves are serrated and it have sharp wooden thorns on its legs. For most of the year they stand motionless but during the dry summers they will migrate to the riparian zone where they can absorb water from the bottom of their feet.

They move extremely slow and may do not make it back in time. Just a few meters can take weeks move across. However they can sometimes get a boost of energy if they step in rotting flora in which they can absorb. They also absorb some water outside the riparian zone when it rains. But it is not enough to sustain them all year and they must come back in order to fill up their reserves for that year.

The reason they leave the riparian zone at all is because of the winter rains which can give flash floods and wash everything away in the river basin. Thus they are never too far out from the river that they cannot get back by the peak of summer.

Only the strongest and most enduring can master careful balance migrating from one biome to another without dehydrating or getting washed away. Thus their best chance of reproducing is actually in the riparian zone when they are all clustered together and can mix their airborne spores together. At the peak of the mating season the air can be thick with spores. They must grow quickly if they do not want to be washed away when the rains come.