Seedpuff

Replacing its ancestor, the seedpuff has grown larger in competition with each other, and has developed three major evolutions to better support its growing size. First is the development of tube-cells that make up its trunk; these tube cells can be very large, but are mostly made of the woody material with relatively little of its mass actually being alive. True to their name, these tube cells are shaped like a tube, and facilitate transport of nutrients up and down the trunk. As the seedpuff grows, these tube cells can divide, making the trunk both wider and taller as needed.

Its second evolution is the development of tiny seeds instead of spores. These are small and light enough to still be shot into the wind, but also have a protective outer coat with stored nutrients inside to help the sprout grow. Like its ancestors, these sprouts still only grow a rudimentary root system to seek out a root system of the opposite sex, upon which they combine genetic material and grow into a new seedpuff.

The third major evolution came about because the seedpuff was unable to pull enough nutrients out of the ground to support much photosynthesis during winter, leading to the adaptation of the cap “folding” down like an umbrella during the season. This folding is controlled by the branches which are located right under the cap. The process involved a good deal of shape-altering at the cellular level, and thus takes about a month to both fold down and go back up again.