Crystal Peridot

An odd branch off of the defended sea rupee managed to slip onto land. The Crystal Peridot is unusual among crystal flora in that its spores are distributed entirely underground—not yet capable of making airborne spores, those that ended up growing on beaches—already protected from desiccation by their crystal-like shells—evolved the ability to produce spores from their roots, which are then slowly distributed by underground moisture. This is not the most efficient; however, they have developed an additional reproductive method, asexual budding from their roots, which furthers their spread across land even in slightly drier environments. They obtain most of the carbon dioxide they need to perform photosynthesis from the ground.

They spread through the land already established with microbes and larger crystal flora, often sprouting in clustered groups like grass in areas where sunlight makes it through the branches of the much larger flora they commonly live among and less frequently though still present in the shadows. They are somewhat slow at reproducing due to their lack of airborne spores, but without any predators they have yet to experience any pressure to make them grow faster.

Crystal Peridots are otherwise much like their ancestor. They retain the single-crystal, rupee-like shape of their ancestor, and they coat available ground space like grass. They are tolerant of shade, like most crystal flora, at least partly because they are mixotrophs which get energy from both sunlight and detritus.