Jester's Helm
The advent of floats can lead to great changes. Jester's Helm are a genus of Violetfringe that have become a free floating. Their center is a large float with many fronds sprouting from it each tipped with a small float. They cluster together in large rafts, providing transient floating ecosystems with food and shelter for small fauna, along with transporting them across open oceans to new shores. They are able to resist significant temperature changes and have thus colonized all temperate, tropical, and subtropical oceans.
They are capable of asexual reproduction through fragmentation provided the fragments have floats and significant enough frond mass to regrow. Sexual reproduction occurs via metagenesis. The sporangia are located on floats branching from the center float. With the absence of substrate in which to transition into gametophytes, the zoospores transition while on the parent. The male gametes released can stay viable for days as they swim and drift to find a mate, but with the clustering behavior of the parents a female gamete is usually within a few meters. Sporophytes will grow for a short time connected to their parent until they develop their own floats and can function independently.
G. saxum. (Bottom Left) Native to only the waters of Dorite, this species possesses three secondary floats which sprout from its primary central float. It is adapted to tropical and subtropical regions and became distinct from G. usitatus after the Dorite Ocean lost its tropical connection to the Vailnoff Ocean. Dorite Tropical Coast, Dorite Tropical Shallows, Tropical Dorite Ocean, Subtropical Dorite Ocean, North Dorite Subtropical Coast, East Dorite Subtropical Coast, Dorite Reef
G. usitatus. (Bottom Right) Native to all Tropical and Subtropical waters in and around Vailnoff, this species possesses fifteen secondary floats. The secondary floats sprout in groups of three from five stalks from the central float. Its fronds are smooth and have the largest surface area of the genus, letting it make the most of the abundant tropical sunlight. Tropical Vailnoff-Flisch-Rhino Ocean, North Subtropical Vailnoff Ocean, South Subtropical Vailnoff Ocean, Subtropical Flisch Ocean, Rhino Subtropical Ocean, Flisch Reef, Hydro-Krakow Tropical Coast, Darwin Tropical Coast, West Hydro Subtropical Coast, East Hydro Subtropical Coast, West Barlowe Subtropical Coast, West Glicker Subtropical Coast, West Darwin Subtropical Coast, East Darwin Subtropical Coast, Anning Reef, Talon-Orpington Tropical Sea, Dixon-Fermi Subtropical Sea, East Orpington Subtropical Coast
G. scruposus. (Top Center) Native to Southern Temperate and Subtropical LadyM Ocean, this species possesses five secondary floats which sprout from its primary central float. Its fronds are jagged with backward facing serrations which help to link individuals together and improve reproductive success given the shorter growing season in the temperate waters. South Subtropical LadyM Ocean, South Temperate LadyM Ocean, East Glicker Subtropical Coast, Squid-Snow Subtropical Coast, West Glicker Temperate Coast, Leopard Temperate Coast, West Dixon Subtropical Coast, Dixon Temperate Coast