Blood Mosshroom

The Blood Mosshroom split off from its ancestor and colonized Darwin’s freshwater habitats. It is named for its blood-red fungal core, which bloats up considerably when exposed to freshwater from its shell being broken. Its core is rather salty in flavor, as it takes in as much salt as it can to retain a similar internal salinity to its ancestor. Like other mosshrooms, it encrusts dead organisms in the water and lives a short life. It produces many water-borne spores, which can be washed up into the riparian biome by floods; its crystal nature prevents it from desiccating, and the spores produced by those that grow in the riparian are able to survive long enough to be spread by the next flood. Like other mosshrooms, it appears to have a “fiery” core when held to light; in this case, its core is blood red.