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Description
It's a little rough looking, I couldn't get it as nice as usual in photoshop this time since i had to take the picture on my phone. My USB ports on my computer broke, so now I only have 4 instead of 6 and I don't have my printer/scanner connected to it.

We've had this thread about extraterrestrial botany over at the Speculative Evolution forum ([link] ) and it got me thinking about plants on Priapus Prime again.

Back in the day I had said they were somewhat like fungi and had a body made of chitin, but chitin doesn't work too well for plants so I've thought of a much more interesting evolution for the priapaphyta. When life was still simple, some sponge like animals evolved in symbiosis with algae. They eventually colonized the land, where the sponges could adapt to gaining moisture by absorbing water vapor from the humid atmosphere. Many eventually evolved leaves, like the basketpalm. The exterior became a porous woody substance to protect the plant's starchy interior. The starch also has a sponge-like structure, to make it lighter and to allow water to be stored inside the trunk as well. To gain nutrients from the soil, water absorbed from the atmosphere is released into the ground and then reabsorbed. Leaves gather light for photosynthesis, and also release excess water through transpiration.

The basketpalm is found all throughout the world of Priapus Prime, and is used by many insectoids and small animals as a home. The lattice structure distributes the weight of the cap, which shades a pool of water that is stored there in case of a sudden drought. Decaying animals and remains in the pools also provide the basketpalm with nutrients when the water is absorbed. Flowers bloom on the inside of the cap (as with most capped plants, called Aquacaps because of their common tenancy to store water in their bodies using specialized caps. The flowers attract pollinators, which then travel to other basketpalms and complete the reproduction cycle. Many animals reproduction cycles coincide with those of their local basketpalms. The fruit will also then grow inside the cap (since flowers turn into fruit and vegetables, if you didn't know that), becoming easily accessible to the consumers which will spread and fertilize the seeds through digestion.

Some priapaphyta lost nearly all of their sponge-like appearance and became much more like Earth plants. A good example of this is lillygrass, which is as common on the plains and fields of Priapus Prime as green grass is here on Earth. The dark red stalks with bright yellow flowers that bloom year-round are a source of food for both grazers and small animals that feed on nectar. They are very resilient organisms, growing back from roots in as little as 72 hours (that's only two days on Priapus Prime). Unlike Earth grass, they are also very nutritious and a staple of many Priapan diets around the globe.

In the drier regions we have priapaphyta like the rainhat; another aquacap and close cousin of the basketpalm. They inhabit the plains of the inner Continent and are a common sight in the Great Imperial Republic (map: [link] ). Although they still absorb most of the moisture they need from the atmosphere, they also have evolved specialized caps that collect rain water and drain it into an interior cavity to store for use during the dry season. They protect this water with a thick outer flesh (which is part of why they are bad at getting water from the air) that is covered in razor sharp scales. Unlike the basketpalm, the rainhats bloom flowers on the outside of their bodies rather than on their caps. They do this to protect their cap from larger animals, which may be able to break it and get the water stored inside. During the mating season the scales fold upwards and point out, allowing pollinators access to the flowers but preventing any possibly-too-curious larger animals from being attracted to them as well.

An even more distant cousin of both the basketpalm and rainhat is the wormshrub, mentioned in a previous deviation. They live in a desert in the central continent called the Sea of Lights (so named for the aurora visible there), where they dig deep roots to get water from aquifers because the air is too dry to absorb vapor from. They store this water in their bodies, protected by a hard shell made from minerals absorbed by specialized pores in their roots. Scaly lips conceal large meaty limbs that replace leaves for photosynthesis. When threatened, they can be pulled into the body and the lips will close tight, not opening until the vibrations sensed by the roots are near "desert breeze" levels.

Description
It's a little rough looking, I couldn't get it as nice as usual in photoshop this time since i had to take the picture on my phone. My USB ports on my computer broke, so now I only have 4 instead of 6 and I don't have my printer/scanner connected to it.

We've had this thread about extraterrestrial botany over at the Speculative Evolution forum ([link] ) and it got me thinking about plants on Priapus Prime again.

Back in the day I had said they were somewhat like fungi and had a body made of chitin, but chitin doesn't work too well for plants so I've thought of a much more interesting evolution for the priapaphyta. When life was still simple, some sponge like animals evolved in symbiosis with algae. They eventually colonized the land, where the sponges could adapt to gaining moisture by absorbing water vapor from the humid atmosphere. Many eventually evolved leaves, like the basketpalm. The exterior became a porous woody substance to protect the plant's starchy interior. The starch also has a sponge-like structure, to make it lighter and to allow water to be stored inside the trunk as well. To gain nutrients from the soil, water absorbed from the atmosphere is released into the ground and then reabsorbed. Leaves gather light for photosynthesis, and also release excess water through transpiration.

The basketpalm is found all throughout the world of Priapus Prime, and is used by many insectoids and small animals as a home. The lattice structure distributes the weight of the cap, which shades a pool of water that is stored there in case of a sudden drought. Decaying animals and remains in the pools also provide the basketpalm with nutrients when the water is absorbed. Flowers bloom on the inside of the cap (as with most capped plants, called Aquacaps because of their common tenancy to store water in their bodies using specialized caps. The flowers attract pollinators, which then travel to other basketpalms and complete the reproduction cycle. Many animals reproduction cycles coincide with those of their local basketpalms. The fruit will also then grow inside the cap (since flowers turn into fruit and vegetables, if you didn't know that), becoming easily accessible to the consumers which will spread and fertilize the seeds through digestion.

Some priapaphyta lost nearly all of their sponge-like appearance and became much more like Earth plants. A good example of this is lillygrass, which is as common on the plains and fields of Priapus Prime as green grass is here on Earth. The dark red stalks with bright yellow flowers that bloom year-round are a source of food for both grazers and small animals that feed on nectar. They are very resilient organisms, growing back from roots in as little as 72 hours (that's only two days on Priapus Prime). Unlike Earth grass, they are also very nutritious and a staple of many Priapan diets around the globe.

In the drier regions we have priapaphyta like the rainhat; another aquacap and close cousin of the basketpalm. They inhabit the plains of the inner Continent and are a common sight in the Great Imperial Republic (map: [link] ). Although they still absorb most of the moisture they need from the atmosphere, they also have evolved specialized caps that collect rain water and drain it into an interior cavity to store for use during the dry season. They protect this water with a thick outer flesh (which is part of why they are bad at getting water from the air) that is covered in razor sharp scales. Unlike the basketpalm, the rainhats bloom flowers on the outside of their bodies rather than on their caps. They do this to protect their cap from larger animals, which may be able to break it and get the water stored inside. During the mating season the scales fold upwards and point out, allowing pollinators access to the flowers but preventing any possibly-too-curious larger animals from being attracted to them as well.

An even more distant cousin of both the basketpalm and rainhat is the wormshrub, mentioned in a previous deviation. They live in a desert in the central continent called the Sea of Lights (so named for the aurora visible there), where they dig deep roots to get water from aquifers because the air is too dry to absorb vapor from. They store this water in their bodies, protected by a hard shell made from minerals absorbed by specialized pores in their roots. Scaly lips conceal large meaty limbs that replace leaves for photosynthesis. When threatened, they can be pulled into the body and the lips will close tight, not opening until the vibrations sensed by the roots are near "desert breeze" levels.