Thistly Slingberries
| Thistly Slingberries | ||
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| (Natebacca spp.) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | Colddigger Other | |
| Week/Generation | 27/167 | |
| Habitat | Barlowe, Lamarck | |
| Size | 50 cm - 3 m Tall | |
| Primary Mobility | Sessile | |
| Support | Cell Wall (Cellulose) | |
| Diet | Photosynthesis | |
| Respiration | Passive (Stomata) | |
| Thermoregulation | Ectotherm | |
| Reproduction | Sexual (Corky Berries and Puffy Spores, Seeds), Asexual (Crown Fragmentation) | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Kingdom Subkingdom Division Class Order Family Genus Species | Eukaryota Phoenoplastida Phoenophyta (info) Rhagioanthia Acininumeropsida Comalasales Arthrocampanaceae Natebacca Natebacca spp. | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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The thistly slingberries split from their ancestor the Mainland Chime Slingberry and rapidly speciated across the accessible land masses. Their size range is generally between a half a meter tall to 3 m tall with their slinging apparatus. As a group these species can be described as fast-growing and short-lived, with a four-year lifespan being at the upper end, with many of them only living for two and being capable of sexual reproduction within their first year. As the name of the group suggests, the ends of their leaves house narrow and stiffened spines for protection, with a few arid specialized species reducing the majority of their leaf down to only that spine, with the photosynthetic actions being left to their petiole.
Members of this group bear fairly typical slingberry body form. Their above ground growth consists of a single unbranching monopodial stem, that is a central leader, with alternating bilateral growths of non-compounded leaves. Their leaves commonly display a distinct petiole, or leaf stem, from the leaf itself with an angled joint between them. However many members of the group also have petioles so wide that the distinction between leaf and leaf stem is not so notable and angled jointage is not immediately detectable. The petioles of all members extend into sheaths that completely surround the central stalk, resulting in a segmented appearance.
Most members of the group have a tall growth habit, allowing them to reach up over competition or prevent debris from piling up on top of them. The majority exist in open environments, scrublands or rockies or grasslands. A few exist in forests populating pocket meadows, or breaks in woodlands, following along the banks of waterways where trees cannot completely dominate the skies. Some have a pseudorosette form, where their bilateral growth may appear hidden as the leaves so close together try to grow out of each other's shadow. These particular species tend to be found in more extreme temperature habitats, mountains, colder situations, or much drier situations.
No species has a central tap root, though many have a few thicker roots for storage purposes, while the majority of their underground mass consists of simple fibrous roots. All members, if their stem is damaged in a way that prevents further growth from their central leader will send up a brand new stem from their root crown. Generally they only develop one stem at any given time, but damages to the root crown itself by environmental cause or biotic damage can cause divisions which result in multiple stems arising. The root crown is capable of surviving quite a bit of division even into small pieces, resulting in unintentional fragmentation being a rather reliable vegetative means of reproduction.
During their growing seasons leaf production is rapid and then followed by what could be described as internodal growth and elongation of the stem as well as the petiole sheaths. After their vegetative season, or the period of time when they produce their leaves, their apical point or tip of their stem terminates into the development of their sexual structure. The structure used for sexual reproduction remains conserved with rather little divergence from there ancestral lineage. This structure may be referred to as their sling.
The sling begins development as a naked portion of stem arising from the protective sheath of the uppermost leaf. Initial escape from the sheath itself is through an arching lifting motion, while elongation continues in an upright position throughout maturity. The height of this structure varies widely between species. During the elongation of the sling stalk the tip remains tightly bent against itself and fused. This tight kink at the top is a vital role in the mature sling structure to form a tension point. The portion of stem adjacent to the main body develops into the arm of the sling.
Upon maturation a portion of membrane between the stalk and arm creates a disk connecting two. The size of this disk depends on the species, while the side of the disk opposite of the tension point ultimately forms a restraint that allows the sling to function. Once reaching mature height the arm develops puffy spores and four clusters of fruiting chimes, essentially ovaries, for genetic exchange between individuals. The puffy spores are released into the air, they become captured by the intact membrane attached to the arm and shuttle the genetic contents to the fruiting chimes in order to fertilize large gametes housed within those structures. After a period of fertilization the membrane begins to wither, opening itself up to form a loop. The side of the loop opposite from the tension point develops into the length of tissue that forms the restraining tether.
The various ovarian structures that comprise the fruiting chime upon fertilization enlarge into basic fruit structures commonly found in this clade. The fruits themselves tend to be hard, somewhat fibrous, and corky to deter predation. As these fruits develop the thread of tissue between them that connects to the main organism and feeds them will elongate into their distinct hanging chime structure. One distinction between this genus group and it's ancestors is that the fruits are oblong in shape rather than winged. They no longer perform any form of gliding and simply tumble through the air as they are slung.
Once the fruits are mature the entire structure desiccates, this drying out creates tension at the connected point between the stalk and the arm. Eventually the restraining tether snaps, either from being brushed against by some meandering fauna or simply due to failing under the pull of the drying structure itself. This allows the arm to quickly whip the chimes up and out from the organism and sling the fruits far away. Afterward the entire structure is eventually shed from the organism. What happens after that varies wildly between species dependent on the seasonal cycles of where they exist. Some may immediately re-enter a vegetative growth state, such as those found in in more tropical regions. Some may go into an everpurple winter dormancy period for gentler temperate regions, or even may die back entirely to the ground for more extreme biomes and grow a new stalk during the next hospitable time.
The corky nature of their fruits allowed them to be able to spread between Barlowe, the Abello archipelago, and Lamarck.