Mundane Crystal
| Mundane Crystal | ||
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| (Filaricrystallus planalaminii) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | Colddigger Other | |
| Week/Generation | 27/167 | |
| Habitat | Darwin Highboreal | |
| Size | 20 cm Tall | |
| Primary Mobility | Sessile | |
| Support | Cell Wall (Chitin) | |
| Diet | Photosynthesis, Detritivore, Parasitism (Plateland Crystals) | |
| Respiration | Passive (Lenticels) | |
| Thermoregulation | Ectotherm | |
| Reproduction | Asexual, Budding, Sexual(host dependent), Airborne Spores | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Kingdom Subkingdom Division Class Order Family Genus Species | Eukaryota Binucleozoa Crystallozoa (info) Cavacrystalita Coelocrystalla Coelocrystallales Reptorhizocrystallaceae Filaricrystallus Filaricrystallus planalaminii | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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The Creeping Crystal gave rise to a descendent that split off and spread into the Darwin Highboreal, this new species of crystal is named the Mundane Crystal. The central green body has shrunk in size by nearly a quarter, to about the height of 20 centimeters. Though it maintains the impermeable layers and osmotic bulbs for greater control it hardly needs them, water is quite capable of traveling up much of their exposed body in the humid biome and often this passive process is allowed with minimal checks. Like their ancestor reproduction of these central bodies occurs via budding from structured roots. These branched cords of tissue extend out from each of the conjoined crystals in an overlapping web-like fashion. Each member continues to feed into the group through these umbilical connections until severed by environmental or predatory cause. In this way the burden of each individual is lessened by the whole working together.
The body structure of this crystal is hardly derived from its lineage. The central body comprising of a green shell with red tissue inside and a hollow core. The shell is made of 8 to 16 vertically unbroken facets, growing broader with age to form a conical shape. These facets have three distinct layers, the green outer layer for photosynthesis, the central supportive layer for structural strength, and the inner interface layer for nutrient exchange and communication with the red tissue symbiont. The edges between the facets open to allow for gas exchange deep into the body. The red tissue inside the crystal has the basic layering, but the main roots more or less lack it, with impermeable layers occurring only when near a central body or budding body in order to cause a positive pressure of nutrients toward them. Besides those portions water and nutrients moves relatively passively through these cords. The mycelioid bodies growing off the roots tend to be sparse in comparison to other crystals. the uncrowded threads will digest surrounding debris and soil and use the intake to create higher osmotic pressure, the water that is drawn in passively ferries the nutrients up the strands where it eventually diffuses into the roots. However mainly what these threads do is scout their surroundings for particular food related signals and seeking their sources rather than focusing on digestion.
A distinct change in behavior in this crystal is a developed association with Plateland Crystals. Though the mundane crystal does continue to perform photosynthesis, and will feed off detritus and soil when needed, it holds strong preference for parasitizing its flat cousins. Plateland Crystals are able to do the work of fending off competition for light, while also being unable to oust the invading budding roots of these parasites. As fixers of the nutrient they also act as fantastic sources for nitrogen as well. However they cut off shallower rooted flora from the soil directly with their layers or shells, so in order to source nutrients in the area the plateland crystals themselves are the best option. When in proximity to a plateland crystal the mycelioid body of the mundane crystal will beeline its growth toward the host organism. The feeding threads weave their way into the interface of their host. From here they hijack the relationship between the two symbionts, soaking up nutrients and water provided by both red and green tissues. In extreme cases this infestation of mycelioid body can become so great that the red tissue found within the plateland crystals interface layer will be 95% mundane crystal instead of the host. An individual mundane crystal is capable of parasitising multiple plateland hosts, and a colony of mundane crystals can devastate whole sprawls of them if given enough time.
Their host plateland crystals, albeit in a roundabout way, are not completely defenseless to this parasite. When growing on its own, or during normal conditions, the mundane crystal reproduces via budding. Once heavily in association with a host, however, more than just nutrients and water can be passed between the species. Chemical and hormonal signalling can pass from host to parasite, including those involved with syncing and stimulating symbionts to sexually reproduce. As the plateland crystal forms its reproductive hollow much of the invasive red tissue ends up becoming involved in the walls, acting as a major sink for hormonal triggers and itself breaking down into haploid gametes. So much so it displaces the gametes spores of its host. The hormones shuttled into the roots make their way to the green crystal bodies of the mundane crystals and have an overwhelming affect on the organism. Much of the signalling that involves the red tissue is taken up by root tissue before it reaches the crystal itself, however because of the minor presence of green tissue in the roots much of the hormone meant for that symbiont remains in full force. As it reaches the green shells it causes the cells of the interface layer to undergo meiosis, breaking down their functionality in the organism as they take on the old sporangium function without proper preparation. As the shell is severed from the red tissue both die from the loss and either dessicate or decompose. This sensitivity to and response toward hormone exposure from their hosts is actually selected for, as it became a quick and dirty means for the species to redevelop sexual reproduction. Though this handicapped them by the inability to perform it on their own leaving them to be obligate parasites to complete their sexual reproductive cycle.
As their host fills with mundane crystal red tissue spores it goes through the typical process of splitting and releasing its contents into the air to drift away. as the green shell of the mundane crystal dies it loosens and sloughs off the dead body of its red symbiont, in doing so it releases its green tissue spores to drift away as well. As the fruiting season progresses the number of dying crystals increases and the timing of spore release between red and green tissues overlap onto the same breezes. These mixed clouds float away to settle together into mud or moist terrain to go through the typical process of forming spore modulas and baby crystals. Through this action the plateland crystals end up destroying their parasitizing neighbors in exchange for their ability to reproduce that season. One caveat of this process is that a baby mundane crystal must rely on photosynthesis and needs air exposure in order to survive, and because of this it cannot colonize into the aggressive environment of established plateland crystal colonies. They must land in the outskirts, or areas that have been torn up by other organisms, and infiltrate individuals on the edges before pushing their way into the heart of their given host colony.
Winters in temperate zones are spent by mature individuals in metabolic dormancy, water binding proteins preventing crystalization from occurring in the tissues exposed to the cold. Spores are rather low in water content to begin with so the cold does not cause them much harm. Free cells or tissues growing prior to the formation of a true crystal body, howver, simply freeze and die from the cold.