Rock Ferries

Rock ferries split from their ancestors. These are small sun-loving ferry bushes which are better suited to growing in rocky soil with low organic content. They are able to grow earlier in primary succession than most other perennials and can readily survive on beaches and in temperate deserts. They are most common in shrublands and mountains. Like their larger ancestors and cousins, they have flowers which provide nectar to pollinators and they produce seed-filled berries which are distributed by various fauna, allowing them to be present in both Wallace and Koseman.

Rock ferries evolved from bush-like ferries with hardly any trunk below the branches. Rock ferries essentially re-evolved the trunk from the branches, and technically consist of a single branch with many sub-branches. This is responsible for their smoother bark and more complex growth form. They do not shed whole branches at all.

Rock ferry leaf fronds are generally waxier than their ancestors’ leaves, protecting them from desiccation in their preferred habitats. Ironically, some species also live in rainforests with greater diversity than normal ferries; here, the wax instead makes their leaves hydrophobic so that rainwater drips away.

With bird-like saucebacks increasing in abundance, many rock ferries produce savory berries preferred by them, as the bird-like saucebacks will not chew the seeds and can retain them in their gut for longer than plents such as phlyers can, making them preferable dispersers. Berry clusters are also more tightly packed and blackberry-like, making them easier to eat whole. The berries are usually green and the flowers are usually yellow, but some exceptions exist.

Some rock ferries are very small and hardly recognizable as being a part of the same genus, consisting of just a few leaf fronds seemingly coming right off a short woody base. A remarkable example of the plasticity of flora forms in evolution, these are in fact still just very small rock ferries lacking any sub-branches, produced by any normal-looking shrub undergoing dwarfism. Likewise, they quickly evolve back into forms indistinguishable from the larger, branchier shrubs.

There are many species of rock ferry, which readily hybridize to produce even more species. Most species are in the 1-2 meter range and can be found covering great swaths of land in shrublands and young growth montane forests, and dotting open plains and deserts. They will also be present in young growth forests in general, though they are typically pushed out by the ancestral ferries. They get smaller and smaller the deeper into subpolar and polar regions one goes, and further up in mountains, with the small, woody fern-shaped species occupying the alpine tundra and the most extreme polar regions. Beach species are also generally smaller and have paler leaves; they don't live in the intertidal zone, as they are not especially tolerant to high amounts of salt, but they cope with the salt they are exposed to by depositing it in leaves that are to be shed. In regions with cold winters, they will shed their leaves in the fall, while in mild climates they are everpurple. Depending on the biome, they sprout either at the start of the wet season or following snowmelt in the spring. They may sprout year-round in equatorial regions, including equatorial alpine tundra.