Krelp

As the southern colony crystal's range expanded into West Darwin Tropical Coast, it was forced to adapt to its new environment. Due to dense, competing populations of Darwin octocrystals and tentacle crystals, the southern colony's mycelium networks were stunted. As a result, the mycelium networks began to grow upwards. Meanwhile, the crystals began developing air pockets to keep them afloat in the water column. These traits were deemed advantageous by the organism, as it allowed them to rise high above the tentacle crystal and better yet, allowed them to consume detritus and microorganisms that were outside of the tentacle crystal's reach. This ultimately culminated in the evolution of the krelp. However, while they were able to colonize West Darwin Temperate Coast and West Glicker Temperate Coast, they were unable to colonize Hydro Temperate Coast and the Hydro-Barlowe Temperate Sea due to the crystalmat's aggressive growth rate and consumption. Any spore that enters Hydro Temperate Coast and the Hydro-Barlowe Temperate sea will be consumed by the endless carpet of crystalmats— and those that manage to germinate will be consumed with the growth of new crystalmats.

Like their ancestor, the krelp's life cycle revolves around the seasons. In the spring, krelp spores germinate as the ocean water grows warmer. From there, the germinating krelp will then begin to rapidly grow a holdfast and then a large, hollow photosynthetic crystal. The crystal initially serves as little more than a flotation device as the plant then grows upwards at a feverish pace. As it nears its maximum height, the crystal's shell thickens as its photosynthetic pigments are produced. Once it reaches its maximum height, it will start to grow more crystals on the mycelial 'stem'. In spite of the stem being little more than a crude mass of hyphae and epidermis, with hyphal hairs sprouting from its surface, it displays distinct nodes and internodes. The crystals sprout from the nodes display opposite phyllotaxy. These crystals are identical to the central crystal, which grows four more crystals around the central crystal in a whorled pattern as the plant ages.

As a relatively uneventful summer passes and gives way to fall, the krelp will reproduce en masse much like its ancestor before dying from dropping temperatures and decreased light levels. However, this is not the case in tropical populations. These populations will release spores regularly throughout the fall and winter as a vestigial holdover from its days living in polar climates. The tropical variant of the krelp is weakened by the mass reproduction to a certain extent. In spite of this poor health, the tropical krelp rarely dies in its first winter, and can survive between three and five years before it can no longer maintain its spore production during the fall and winter, and dies of exhaustion as a result.