Gourjorn

The gourjorn developed from the Fermi Temperate Beach population of chitjorns, and subsequently replaced them. Their population density is greatest in the Fermi Temperate Beach habitat.

Gourjorns reproduce by budding from a growth point at their tops where their shell slices meet. The growth point produces a small, narrow, pumpkin-stem like copy of the parent. The bud, at this stage called the "stembud", is made of a central tube with chitinous walls and small, underdeveloped shell slices surrounding the central tube. The chitinous walls of the central tube are in a wood-like chemical configuration and transport nutrients, so they are much like the phloem tissue of woody plants. As the stembud grows, it swells to a large, rounded shape. Little "caps" covering its photosynthetic holes fall off, allowing it to photosynthesize. The gourjorn bud can grow to be three-fifths the size of its parent individual, and even grow a copy of its own on its top.

Flash floods act as a cue for the parent individual to detach its buds. It does so by dissolving a breakage point in the phloem tube of its offspring, leaving a scar equivalent to a belly button. The detached buds float on the water, eventually settle somewhere, and then grow roots around their detachment scars.

In drought conditions, gourjorns enter a state of "hibernation". Gourjorns replace the greenish-black pigments in the chitin shells with light orange pigments. (It also replaces the pigments in its photosynthetic tissue, if to a lesser extent.) These pigments are chemically similar to the pigments responsible for pumpkins' orange color. The pigments act as a "sunscreen" to prevent damage caused by intense sunlight. They also reflect light, thus absorbing less heat. The color change comes at the cost of making it more conspicuous to herbivores, for light orange is much easier to distinguish against a background of black sand than greenish-black. However, only a few herbivores are able to break through or circumvent the gourjorn's tough chitin shell, among them the chitjornpecker and snapjaw. The gourjorn's mushy green flesh, much like watermelon, is high in water, making it valuable as a source of water to the few herbivores that can eat it.

Its reproductive mode means it must provide nutrients and water to attached offspring, so it requires higher nutrient and water levels than its ancestor. However, it is still a hardy flora quite capable of withstanding droughts and extreme temperature changes.

Notes: Here's Sagan 4's pumpkin. Well, in this image it's more like a green-and-orange gourd shaped vaguely like a stack of pumpkins, but evidently that counts as Halloween-y since I saw several gourds at the Halloween pumpkin patch.