#speculative botany

[petitecompendium]

Lemuria Phase II canonised taxa list (Part 4)

This is part 4 of my list of the 43 canonised taxa I had in the #Paleostream #LemuriaChallenge going environment by environment and showcasing their original submissions, you can find part 3 here

The Central Wetlands:

Pseudoanthos maiae (Iunturodentephyllum lemurensis) (Williamsonispina acuta) (repeat!)

[cadere-art]

A sample of common crops of Uanlikri, with a focus on crops grown on the Ojame archipelago.

More information under the cut.

Grains

Several types of grains and grain-like crops are cultivated in Uanlikri. Of these, the four major types are millet, sand rice, swamp rice, and amaranth (not depicted).

Millet and sand rice are heat-loving and drought tolerant, with sand rice requiring especially good soil drainage but being more cold hardy. They are the main staples north of the Kantishian Mountains. Millet is favoured in the wetter Basin region, and sand rice in the dryer, more mountainous western regions, and both are grown equally in the continent's hot and arid northern desert.

Swamp rice is another important staple of the Basin region: though cultivation is complexified by its extremely heavy water requirements (swamp rice only grows in marshes or riverbanks), the complex river deltas leading to the Basin's inner seas are ideal for its cultivation and have been heavily modified to create artificial wetlands where swamp rice can be grown. Some strains of swamp rice have good cold hardiness allowing them to be grown south of the Kantishian Mountains. Swamp rice has also been selected for salt resistance: it is an especially important crop in the cold brackish marshes of the Cianji river and in the hot saltwater marshes of the Ojame Archipelago.

Amaranth is primarily cultivated in southern regions of Uanlikri. In the southern Basin region, they are a supplemental crop, but up in the mountains and in the cold lands south of the Kantishian, amaranth is the main staple. Mountain amaranth is especially frost resistant and able to survive nightly summer frosts in the Kantishian's high plateaus.

Red oats, known in the Ojame archipelago as uciwici, is a locally important crop grown in eastern coastal regions. Red oats is sensitive to extreme temperatures and does poorly in continental climates, but its extremely high salt resistance and ability to grow in poor soils make it a crucial crop by allowing cultivation to extend to otherwise marginal areas such as sandbars, coastal dunes, and other poor, rocky and sandy soils. It is appreciated for its purple grains with a naturally slightly salty taste, and for its decorative red foliage which retains some of its colour when dried, making it useful for basketry.

Ferns

Other grain-like crops grown in Uanlikri are seed ferns. Seed ferns are distantly related to true ferns and cycads. Two species are cultivated in Uanlikri: a climbing seed fern grown South of the Kantishian and which produces large numbers of small orange seeds attached to the underside of its fronds, and a caytoniale tree fern which produces modified fronds with large, round yellow seeds instead of leaves and is grown in the Upper Basin and Great Lakes region.

Climbing seed ferns are extremely prolific with a seasonal harvest on par with grain fields and well-keeping seeds with high nutritional value. The seeds are bitter with a taste somewhat reminiscent of burnt almonds and citrus peel, and are usually parboiled before cooking to remove some of the bitterness.

Caytoniale seed ferns are less prolific but are perennials. The seed envelope is also quite bitter, but the seed flesh has a pleasant neutral flavour and a crunchy, sticky texture not unlike that of meringue. Seeds keep well on the tree, but go bad quickly once harvested unless they are properly processed: seeds meant to be kept are parboiled, smoked, and ground into flour, while seeds meant for short-term consumption are either hulled and ground into flour, or hulled and grilled, often to be eaten as snacks alongside grilled insects.

True ferns are commonly consumed as greens, especially young fern shoots (fiddle-heads) and equisetum (horsetail) ferns. Antioles are less sensitive to the toxins in ferns, and parboiling of fiddleheads is often done but not strictly necessary unless consumed in great quantities.

Legumes

Legumes grown for food are historically rather rare in Uanlikri prior to the conquest of the Western Peninsula by the Senq Ha Empire. There are only two important legume crops in Uanlikri which are native to the continent: the grosbean, and the wax pea.

Grosbean is a vine which produces short, rectangular pods containing two to three large beans. The beans are exceptionally large, very colourful, and have a somewhat chalky texture. They used to be a staple in the Basin region, but have been mostly displaced by more palatable varieties introduced by Senq Ha colonists, though they are still grown for jewellery.

The wax pea is short, somewhat vine-like plant producing smooth pods containing a single unpalatable, extremely waxy pea. Though they are edible under duress, wax peas have never been grown as a food crop. They are instead highly valued for the wax which can be obtained by boiling the peas in a slightly acidic solution.

Other legumes (not depicted) have grown in popularity in the two centuries since and are now commonly eaten in most regions.

Roots and fruits

There is a great regional variation in the crops grown for their greens, roots, and fruits. This section should be treated as a sample of a sample, focused more closely on crops grown in the Ojame Archipelago.

Fruits

There are several species of ginkgo in Uanlikri, all of which produce elegant foliage and edible nuts. The nuts stink and their skin can cause rashes, so they are to be manipulated with caution, but their creamy flesh is much appreciated for its strong cheese-like flavour, which confers a pungent taste to salty and sweet dishes alike.

Bird cherries are small, cherry-like fruits that grow on trees and bushes. Most bird cherries are tart and astringent and are used for a touch of tartness or in jams and other preserves. Some cultivars produce very sweet cherries. The seeds of most birdcherries are mildly toxic to antioles.

The arils of a few yew species are eaten by antioles, especially as a gooey prepared delicacy or in jams. All other parts of the yew plant are extremely toxic to antioles, and the arils must be consumed with extreme caution. Because of this, it is illegal to plant yews on the Ojame Archipelago and especially in Ranai, but due to the extreme longevity of these trees, there are several ancient yews in the city of Ranai which are important landmarks and sources of yew arils.

Various citrus are grown and used throughout the Northern parts of the continent: most are acidic and bitter, though there are also sweet varieties. In the citruses of Uanlikri, green is associated with sweetness, yellow with bitterness, and orange with acidity.

Sumac is an important culinary crop in the Ojame Archipelago: sumac fruits are processed for the production of malic acid, a popular flavoring and crucial ingredient in the traditional Ojame ceviches.

Mothberries are named after their pale blue flowers in the shape of a butterfly. It is a drought resistant plant originating from the northern regions of the continent and cultivated for multiple uses: its tuber and leaves are aromatic and medicinal and its fruit is very sweet.

Roots

Root vegetables of all kinds make up an important portion of non-staple crops throughout Uanlikri.

Fur yams are floury and sweet, with edible and prolific leaves with a distinctly "green" taste.

Gourd roots, named after their shape, are crunchy, aromatic and sweet, with leaves used as culinary herbs.

Reeds are an all-around essential plants, with young shoots eaten as greens, roots eaten as a staple by coastal and marshland peoples, and its dried leaves and stems essential materials in basketry.

Orange onions are one of the many varieties of alliums cultivated in Uanlikri. They are the most popular alliums in Ranai. They are potently sulfuric and milden considerably with cooking.

Sweet and pearl radishes (are not radishes) are different cultivars of the Uanlikri radish (not a radish) with crunchy, fresh-tasting and slightly bitter leaves and small starchy tubers which produce very fine starches.

Spindleaf yams are plants with strangely shaped, aromatic and medicinal leaves somewhat reminiscient of sage and a juicy, crunchy tuber with a slight, mustard-like bite.

These are just a sample of grains, ferns, legumes, greens, roots and fruits eaten in Ranai and elsewhere on the continent of Uanlikri. Many of these plants have a large number of regional cultivars, and each region has a variety of local plants they grow or gather which are not broadly eaten elsewhere.

[speculative-world]

Spirotrypta, more commonly called a Spiral Wart are small and plentiful solumykitas. Spirotrypta can be found all over the mountain, usually near dead plant matter or sprouting out of decaying corpses. They are poisonous to consume but nonlethal, some larger ostomesa enjoy eating them, as well as small hardy ostoexoapo which feed on its spores. ◗ta in the region collect Spiral Wart spores to use in medicine thanks to the properties of the Spirotryptas poison, so long as its refined in a specific way. If you have any questions about this organism please don’t be afraid to ask.

[jingleeljester]

Ok Fern’s respiratory system GO

Essentially, he doesn’t breathe like a normal person, however he can still take in air. This is shown when he’s sleeping and all of that jazz HOWEVER he canNOT exhale. Thus, it seems as if he can only inhale and somehow dissipate the unused gas via a way other than exhaling. This’ll explain that

Like a normal human respiratory system, Fern can inhale plain old air from the atmosphere via his mouth and nose (or just nostrils. I'm not sure if he even has a nose.) 

WHY does he do this? Well, in order for plants to undergo photosynthesis, they need a good supply of CO2. Fern is no different, however he has a lot more mass to support. Like, a LOT more. Thus, the need to get CO2 supplied to the rest of his internal structure warrants the need of an internal respiratory system much like a human’s (that AND im sure the Grass Demon added in a similar system for the sake of mimicry as well- but it just happened to also develop into an actually useful system- unlike the wads of grass “organs” found throughout ferns body)

Fern cannot exhale, though, so how might he expel the gas his body cannot use? Well, in the very top of his throat, likely around where the very start of the throat begins, he has a “pallet” if you will that can filter out the needed and unneeded substances. This pallet redirects the usable substances (in this case CO2) and redirects the rest to an area of his throat I’ve decided to call the gills. These are holes in his throat area that lead directly to the outside. With these he can expel any gasses that are not needed (However, things that cannot be easily moved like solids CANNOT be removed this way and must be spat out. Then again the pallet wouldn’t even let solids get that far I don’t think hence why solids tend to just fall out of is mouth as seen when he tried to eat meatloaf)

It is worth noting that this pallet covers the ENTIRETY of where the opening in a human's throat would be and thus ONLY CO2 as well as water could get through. Other than that nothing can pass in or out and so for all other purposes, his mouth doesn’t lead down to anything. There is no hole.

These “gills” I mentioned are likely located just beside the pallet on the same level (the pallet is pretty thick actually so this makes sense.) The gasses that go unused are easily drifted right from the inside of the pallet and straight outside via the gill slits (reverse gills, if you will.) 

So after the CO2 is transferred into his internal system, it then gets moved over to hollow sacs that essentially act as lungs. When CO2 is added, these lungs expand, and when they go back to their default resting position, the CO2 is pushed out into various small tubes or “veins” across Fern’s body. This is how the most dense, internal biomass he has gets the CO2 it needs.

Edit: just realized I put O2 instead of CO2 😬 plus fixing some tags

[societalnarrator]

Late Temperocene: 160 Million Years post-estahblishment

Somewhere in the Early Late Temperocene...

After a long period of hothouse, the arrival of cold weather towards the end of the Temperocene signals the great mass extinction that will occur, but for now, life is still in one of its peak periods. While the biodiversity of hamsters, is much overrated about, the same is true for other organisms as well. Plants, which are often viewed as quite underrated, also host an enormous biodiversity, just like hamsters.

When they were first introduced to the planet, they consisted of only a specific myriad of species, but over time they evolved into thousands of species and continue to evolve. Thanks to this immense diversity of marine plants, the epipelagic zone now hosts more diverse organisms than ever before, although they are still grazed by marine herbivores, but they too have undergone cross-evolution, and one species in particular is notable for containing neurotoxins capable of killing herbivores.

The Hamatee Killer (Sirenogramen cricetophoneus), a descendant of floatvines, is a poisonous plant that grows in the Fragmian Sea. On land, some important plant groups, like Saberleaf, are poisonous enough to deter most herbivores, and the same is now happening both on land and at sea. Because they grow in a competitive ecosystem, this poisonous floatvine develops its toxin in the protrusions on its rhizomes and relies on its leaves for another tactic: emitting pleasant, clean scents. Herbivores, especially Hamatee, with easily manipulated brains that are readily swayed by lies, are injured by the rhizomes beneath them when they eat the leaves. Furthermore, the neurotoxin begins to affect the animal's entire internal system, starting with the brain, and as a result, the herbivore trying to eat it dies from both blood loss and poisoning.

The Late Temperocene is taking biodiversity, especially in the oceans, to a whole new level, resulting in the emergence of highly competitive ecosystems. Some marine plant species, particularly the Hamatee killers, have had to resort to poison to protect themselves in this intense competition, but the process of cross-evolution is not yet complete. Hamatees will develop resilient digestive systems to counter the poisonous leaves, and such plants will need to reconsider everything in order to defend themselves.

===

Sirenogramen cricetophoneus > "hamster-killing siren-weed"

[the-felttip-files]

Wowza!! Plants!!!

[makairodonx]

Spectember 2024 Day 6: Hell-Yucca

Not all of the island continent of Tataria consists entirely of grassland; there are small patches of forest near its southern coast, a few mountain ranges in the southwest and the northeast, and a large water-scarce desert spans much of the northwestern half of the island continent. The Hell-Yucca, whose touch-sensitive leaves measure 5 meters long and is one of the many hardy plant residents of this northwestern desert, has evolved an ingenious method to obtain its water and nutrients…by luring in sheep or cow-sized herbivores with its leaves drawn out so that the herbivores will trigger the plant’s touch receptors by chewing or stamping them. This causes the carnivorous plant to wrap its huge, spine-studded leaves around its helpless prey, pull them towards where its fruits grow and squeeze them of all their water, nutrients and flesh. The Hell Yucca also relies on the Spearbills, a family of strange passerine birds that have evolved to occupy a similar niche to Earth’s hummingbirds, to pollinate its towering columns of yellow hush orange flowers, which only bloom in spring and summer.

[jomindraws]

Brainstormed some Jom'Gol flora species, namely those in Kingdom Chlorophylla. I know the paper format is a bit scuffed but you get the idea hopefully. Going to draw some more flora concepts before I put them "in stone" and confirm any morphologies of plants.