
Gearrubaid (Sagaxafrutex spp.) [Sharp Bush]
Creator: Salty
Ancestor: Shardruby
Habitat: Barlowe, Glicker, Termite Island, Squid Island, Snow Island, Leopard Island, Darwin, Hydro, Krakow Island
Size: 5-50cm
Support: (whatever stem they have?) (Chitin)
Diet: Photosynthesis (Full Sun, Partial Shade)
Thermoregulation: Ectotherm
Respiration: Passive (Stomata)
Reproduction: Sexual (subterranean waterborne spores, airborne spores; no individual sexes), Asexual (budding from roots)
The End-Binucliazoic extinction event saw the end of many dominant clades of crystal flora. One clade that managed to survive were the rubyshrooms, due to their smaller sizes and lack of dependence on other crystal flora. Of this clade, Shardruby was the first to take advantage of the freshly available space across the scattered continents that once made up Hybarder.
Instead of a single shard, Gearrubaid now grow as a cluster of shards, with sharp tips to disway casual grazers. They have developed to keep their shards through multiple growing seasons to conserve nitrogen. They also have developed a tuber root to store nutrients for the regrowth of shards and to develop a longer lifespan. This adaptation has allowed the genus to live through multiple growing seasons, with some species managing to live for 10 years.
The genus Gearrubaid has been unable to spread into the Taiga’s of Darwin and Barlowe, as their spores cannot tolerate below freezing conditions for more than 30 days. Temperate species predominantly exist in the biomes range which experience less than 30 continuous below freezing days, and will populate the biomes inhospitable ranges during the warmer seasons via windborne dispersal of spores. They are unrestricted in tropical and subtropical biomes, with the largest species growing in tropical rainforests.