HOME | DD

Description
Whiptrees
Alberi staffile
Flagropsida

A class of trees commonly found in the woodlands and jungles of Horus.

«Moving from the open spongegrass prairie towards the woodlands, one can notice the spongegrass receding and giving way to shrubs and trees that require more water and minerals to grow. While the feathertrees are also found in this environment, the dominance in floral diversity shifts to the slender members of the class Flagropsida, commonly known as whiptrees. This name refers to the long branches or rami, usually soft and rarely forking, that sprout from the tip of the trunk. Like feathertrees, whiptrees have internal channels that pump fluids upwards.
The class Flagropsida is usually divided in two main orders, with a few minor outgroups: Stratales (soldier trees and true whiptrees) and Ecclesiales (the cathedral trees). Both will be shortly described here. Their trunk is slender, smooth, usually red and capable of photosynthesis; this is not true for the whiptrees of the twilight forests, which instead have wider rami and leaf-like structures. Every ramus is covered in bristles that vary from a minute, silky cover to thick thorns or even urticating hairs similar to those of a nettle.
Most Stratales employ these two last kinds as a mean of defense. The soldier whiptree (Militarbor hostilis) has three-to-six thin rami that usually lie limp parallel to the trunk, but when an animal gets too close, and is probably perceived through vibrations in the ground, muscle-like fibres contract suddenly, and the rami start flailing in all directions; even a slight touch of them is enough to cause painful burns that linger on the skin for several days before they even start healing, due to a mixture of tissue-consuming enzymes siilar to those that carnivorous parachordates use to digest meat.
The gorgontree (Ophidendron medusae) is less spectacular in its defense, but just as dangerous for the perching diplopterygians so common in the woodlands. A dozen of thick, fleshy, slightly curved rami are clustered on the top of the trunk, like the leaves of a palm; whenever something tries to perch on them, they close like tentacles on the unlucky creature and they cover it in enzymes and noxious chemicals until its soft tissues are turned to liquid. Both the soldier whiptree and the gorgontree are about 10 m (30 ft) high.
The order Ecclesiales is far less dangerous, and in fact it provide sone of the most beautiful environments on Horus. The rami of chapeltrees (Cyrtodendron ecclesiasticus) and similar species, sprouting from a perfectly upright trunk are close in shape to lancet arches, so that a forest of these trees resembles the interior of a gothic church, bathed in the soft light that filters through the layer of epiphytes. Ecclesiales can reach a remarkable size; particularly, the giant cathedral tree (Acrostylon carnotensis), over 30 m (100 ft) high, is the largest tree ever discovered on Bastet. It displays a perfect six-fold symmetry, each ramus identical to the others and regular in width down to the tip; a net of fibres expand the surface of the rami, offering it to photosynthesis.»

Description
Whiptrees
Alberi staffile
Flagropsida

A class of trees commonly found in the woodlands and jungles of Horus.

«Moving from the open spongegrass prairie towards the woodlands, one can notice the spongegrass receding and giving way to shrubs and trees that require more water and minerals to grow. While the feathertrees are also found in this environment, the dominance in floral diversity shifts to the slender members of the class Flagropsida, commonly known as whiptrees. This name refers to the long branches or rami, usually soft and rarely forking, that sprout from the tip of the trunk. Like feathertrees, whiptrees have internal channels that pump fluids upwards.
The class Flagropsida is usually divided in two main orders, with a few minor outgroups: Stratales (soldier trees and true whiptrees) and Ecclesiales (the cathedral trees). Both will be shortly described here. Their trunk is slender, smooth, usually red and capable of photosynthesis; this is not true for the whiptrees of the twilight forests, which instead have wider rami and leaf-like structures. Every ramus is covered in bristles that vary from a minute, silky cover to thick thorns or even urticating hairs similar to those of a nettle.
Most Stratales employ these two last kinds as a mean of defense. The soldier whiptree (Militarbor hostilis) has three-to-six thin rami that usually lie limp parallel to the trunk, but when an animal gets too close, and is probably perceived through vibrations in the ground, muscle-like fibres contract suddenly, and the rami start flailing in all directions; even a slight touch of them is enough to cause painful burns that linger on the skin for several days before they even start healing, due to a mixture of tissue-consuming enzymes siilar to those that carnivorous parachordates use to digest meat.
The gorgontree (Ophidendron medusae) is less spectacular in its defense, but just as dangerous for the perching diplopterygians so common in the woodlands. A dozen of thick, fleshy, slightly curved rami are clustered on the top of the trunk, like the leaves of a palm; whenever something tries to perch on them, they close like tentacles on the unlucky creature and they cover it in enzymes and noxious chemicals until its soft tissues are turned to liquid. Both the soldier whiptree and the gorgontree are about 10 m (30 ft) high.
The order Ecclesiales is far less dangerous, and in fact it provide sone of the most beautiful environments on Horus. The rami of chapeltrees (Cyrtodendron ecclesiasticus) and similar species, sprouting from a perfectly upright trunk are close in shape to lancet arches, so that a forest of these trees resembles the interior of a gothic church, bathed in the soft light that filters through the layer of epiphytes. Ecclesiales can reach a remarkable size; particularly, the giant cathedral tree (Acrostylon carnotensis), over 30 m (100 ft) high, is the largest tree ever discovered on Bastet. It displays a perfect six-fold symmetry, each ramus identical to the others and regular in width down to the tip; a net of fibres expand the surface of the rami, offering it to photosynthesis.»