Creepincrystals

Creepincrystals completed landfall and diversified into a large group of ground-dwelling crystals. Though very similar to one another in appearance, they are diverse in less visible ways. Their spores remain waterborne, spread mainly by rain; they also retain the ancestral “hairs”, which can detach when hit by strong winds or strong flooding water currents and grow into new individuals elsewhere.

Creepincrystals have a variety of adaptations for different climates. Those in polar and colder montane regions tend to have denser, heat-trapping growth and darker pigmentation. Desert species are hardy and tend to fragment more readily than those in other locations, as there is less rain to spread their spores. Those in forests are generally more shade-tolerant, and those found along rivers and streams have longer “hairs” and prefer to grow on rocks and logs to avoid being buried in floods. Where Petrolignum flora are present, Creepincrystals may creep up the trunks as they grow, but this is not where they are primarily found.

The evolution of Creepincrystals began in Barlowe, and they were able to cross the Glicker-Barlowe Hot Desert via trade winds blowing fragments towards Glicker over time. This has resulted in the genus being established in both regions. Populations in hot deserts notably have high species turnover; as sexual reproduction is limited in the desert, the species present there experience a gradual decline of their genetic health until they are eventually replaced by a new, genetically healthy species which spread there from outside the desert.