Drylicad

While most violet flora remains in more humid areas, this extreme species has adapted to live in the driest of Sagan 4’s tropical habitats. It has several adaptations that allow it to survive the otherwise barely hospitable desert environment.

The most noticeable aspect of the drylicad is its brown trunk. While not its most important moisture conservation feature, its thick layer of dead bark prevents moisture from escaping the living cells underneath. However, this compressed layer blocks the light that would normally reach the cells underneath. As a result, it has mostly lost photosynthesis in this bottom region. This does not matter too much though, as its leaves already get enough sun in the arid desert climate.

What is probably the most important moisture conservation feature for this flora is the glossy coating of wax that covers most of its exposed parts. This layer prevents the transpiration that would otherwise evaporate all the moisture from its leaves and reproductive structures. The central reproductive organ is also covered in small pits for its reproductive purposes, as it needs some moist areas to take in and release water and certain spores. Similarly to its cousin, the scalebab, the reproductive stalk and bulbs dry out completely during the day, only becoming moist and active at night. This makes it unreliant on rainstorms for reproduction. Another way the drylicad prevents transpiration is by having long and slender leaves. This includes the upper “crown”, which has unfused in order to have similar adaptations to the bottom leaves.

In order to obtain the water necessary for its survival, the drylicad has very deep roots capable of reaching into the water table. These roots are grown very early in the drylicad’s life cycle in order to give it a headstart, though it also invests in a network of more shallow roots in order to collect any precipitation it can.

The dispersal of spores is quite hard in the desert when individual flora can be quite far away from each other, but the large amount of spores the adults can produce and their long lifespans generally help. Some rudimentary pollination does occasionally happen, though. Certain nocturnal spardiflies may go to a mature drylicad to rest or to drink the water temporarily brought to the surface for reproduction, inadvertently getting spores stuck to it.