Fermi Panelwort

Fermi Panelwort
(Katoptroderma fermiensis)
Information
Creator	OviraptorFan Other
Week/Generation	27/167
Habitat	Fermi Tundra, Fermi Steppe, Fermi Prairie, Fermi Subpolar Volcanic
Size	8 centimeters tall
Primary Mobility	Sessile
Support	Cell Wall (Chitin)
Diet	Photosynthesis
Respiration	Unknown
Thermoregulation	Ectotherm (Lenses)
Reproduction	Asexual (Budding)
Taxonomy
Domain Superkingdom Kingdom Phylum Class Order Family Genus Species	Eukaryota Viridisagania Kyanozoa Hyalophyta Katoptrophyta Katoptrales Katoptrodermaceae Katoptroderma Katoptroderma fermiensis

Ancestor:	Descendants:
Glaalgaes

In the colder southern parts of Fermi, amongst the many species of purple pheonophytes and black melanophytes, there are what appear to be tiny pillars of blue dotting the landscape. A closer look reveals it to be a type of glassflora, but one that has an anatomy unlike any other member of the group found in the region such as the more widespread hollowdomes. While it does not resemble any other glassflora internally in modern times, if one was to look into the past they would actually find a glassflora that closely resembles this species, the long extinct reflecor. These supposed similarities between the taxa might at first be thought of as just convergent evolution, but it turns out they are actually genuinely shared traits, with the two being each other's closest known relatives in the glassflora family tree. As the reflecor is long extinct, this other species of glassflora referred to as the Fermi panelwort remains as a bizarre and particularly ancient branch of glassflora found only on the continent of Fermi.

An internal look of a Fermi panelwort, showing off its anatomy.

On the surface, the Fermi panelwort already stands out somewhat amongst other varieties of glassflora, since it most closely resembles ancient species such as the glaalgae except it has fewer and larger lenses. The differences increase significantly, however, if one were to slice the flora in half. The Fermi panelwort shares many anatomical traits with the long extinct reflecor, such as having a thick reflective layer of chitin surrounding the nutritive core which provides protection for the core but more importantly increases the photosynthetic efficiency of the Fermi panelwort. Like in the reflecor, light that passes through the photosynthetic layer of tissues hits the reflective layer and gets bounced back, passing through the photosynthetic layer again so more light can be absorbed by the photosynthetic cells. Unlike its extinct relative, however, the Fermi panelwort has not lost all of its lenses, which in turn means whatever light passes through the photosynthetic layer again will hit the lenses and be reflected back down into the photosynthetic layer. This in turn causes the light waves to be bounced back and forth between the lenses and the reflective internal layer over and over, allowing the glassflora to make the most of whatever light it can get.

Such an adaptation is quite useful for the Fermi panelwort, both because they have to fully rely on their nutritive core as an energy storage during the long dark winter months, and because their small size means the glassflora can often be overshadowed by larger flora species and thus have limited light access to begin with. The species also still primarily absorbs magenta light with their chloroplasts, allowing them to take advantage of a different part of the light spectrum than more other varieties of flora which in turn minimizes competition. The Fermi panelwort relies fully upon asexual budding for reproduction and it retains a symbiosis with nitrocycle microbes.