Day 9: ghost zone
Ghostly Flora and Fauna
A guide to common plants
By Ghost Writer and Undergrowth
The various leafy plants are called Polypodiophyta, or Fernals. These are mutations of the human fern plant that found its way here through natural portals. Apart from their glow and edibility, though they are quite bitter, they don’t do much else.
On the upper left, we have the Alta Esculenta, or the Mavor plant. The center orange part is an edible fruit. According to our interviewee, Danny Fenton, they taste “like citrusy mangos with a touch of battery acid.”
Below that we have the Nox Filicus, more commonly known as the Night Fern. This functions much like what Fenton called a ‘sea anemone’ that only allows small blob ghosts near. Any more powerful ghosts will be ‘stung’ and have to receive immediate medical attention lest they want their appearance to become unstable.
In the upper middle we have the Malum Hydriam, the Blob Catcher. As its more common name suggests, it attracts small blob ghosts which it then catches and absorbs.
The one pictured in the lower middle is the Extractus Malus, the common Shroom. This plant helps filter pollution and foreign particles out of ectoplasm.
The one on the right is the Salicum Candentis, the Glowing Willow. These plants are considered sacred and are said to be connected to the core of the Zone itself. Like the common Shroom, it also helps extract contamination. But more importantly it also produces pure ectoplasm and its blossoms can help with medical issues such as calming a ghost down from an obsession trance and helping a ghost who's lost touch with their obsession not retreat into their core.
Most importantly, they are integral to the coronation of new kings. A potion is made using the blossoms and the king to be is to drink it then walk up to the trunk where they will be obscured by the branches. If they walk out then the Zone has accepted them as king and they are imbued with knowledge of the movements of the Zone and an inner sense for navigating the ever shifting islands.
However, this plant is not without its dangers. As stated, it can have a calming effect on ghosts, but if a ghost were to be near to the tree for an extended period of time it would have a soporific effect and the ghost would fall into a deep sleep like trance. The branches would then gradually wrap around the ghost pulling them toward the trunk where it will slowly begin to absorb the ghost leaving only the ghost’s core. Recovery is possible, but will take a long time and the ghost, once emerged from its core, will be back at the strength level of the newly dead.
