
Plentwerms (Florambuloparasita spp.)
Creator: Clayren
Ancestor: Parasitic Floats (Volaparasitiphyta spp.)
Habitat: Global (Sagan 4)
Size: 0.5-2 cm wide segments, 10-45 cm long colonies
Support: Cell Wall (Cellulose)
Diet: Photosynthesis, Parasite (Photosynthesizing Plents)
Respiration: Passive (Stomata)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Reproduction: Sexual (Hermaphrodite, Spores), Asexual ()
Plentwerms split from their ancestor the Parasitic Floats. Plentwerms are long colonies of parasitic flora that spend the majority of their lives inside photosynthesizing plents. When ingested or breathed in Plentwerm spores will use their sticky tendrils to attach onto the interior walls of the plent’s body and digest a hole from which nutrients may be accessed. With a stable source of food, the Plentwerm will begin to undergo macroscopic binary fission. Rather than separating into two organisms, however, they will instead remain linked by their digestive tendrils. When a colony of Plentwerms becomes very long the organisms at the end of the colony will become filled with spores and their connected tendrils will become weaker. Eventually they will tear off from the end of the colony like a ticket being taken from a roll and will be discarded with waste. The discarded organisms do not die, but remain alive within excreted material. Cryoutines endosymbiotes provide hydrogen to these detached organisms, helping them to slowly rise to the top of any excretory deposit. From there the lone Plentwerm will survive for a time on photosynthesis, collecting and fertilizing spores released by other Plentwerms in other nearby deposits. After a couple weeks of this the organism will release its own load of spores and then die.
Spores will then be spread by detritivores or by organisms treading through or close to deposits of excrement or by breathing them in. These juveniles contain a copy of their mother’s symbiotic Cryoutines and are capable of floating slightly above the excretory deposit from which they hatched. Aimless, the juveniles are easily inhaled by organisms sniffing or breathing near these deposits. They will then swim through the interior of the organism until they hit a surface. These Plentwerms will then begin the process of sticking to and digesting a hole in said surface. If the host proves compatible the lifecycle will repeat again.
While the first Plentwerms developed among green-winged Phlyers such as the Rosybeak Phlyer, Azure Phlyer and Golden Phlyer, today there are many species of Plentwerms. Some are highly specialized to only a single species of plent, others are more generalized and each species has a morphology suited to its host species. They spread easily thanks to flying and ocean-going plents and can be found worldwide wherever there are photosynthesizing plents. Plents that have abandoned photosynthesis or have very weak photosynthesis are immune to Plentwerms, however, as their body chemistry is too different. So too are plents which have lost and re-evolved photosynthesis.